


Ghost in the Falls

by Illusn



Category: Danny Phantom, Gravity Falls
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure, Crossover, Gen, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-06-08 07:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15238044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusn/pseuds/Illusn
Summary: This story has been abandoned and is currently being rewritten as I am not happy with it as it is currently.A crossover fanfiction between Gravity Falls and Danny Phantom.The Fenton family go on summer holiday to Gravity Falls, after hearing rumours of the strange occurrences there, but what awaits them was more than what they'd bargained for.This takes place after D-Stabilised, Phantom Planet never happened, and the summer holiday the year after the events of Gravity Falls.





	1. Chapter 1

"Remind me again why we're going to some run down town for our summer vacation," questioned Jazz, a slim, red haired girl, as she sat crammed in the back of the Fenton RV.

"Because it's haunted, or at least that's what the rumors say," replied Maddie Fenton, a blue jumpsuit-clad woman, who in appearance was obviously Jasmine's mother.

"We're going to catch some ghosts!" Jack chimed in excitedly, between sips of his soda, that was strapped to an odd helmet with a straw leading to his mouth.

"Jazz, haven't you given up arguing yet?" remarked Danny, leaning back in his seat, his messy black hair getting in the way of his face.

The RV hopped along the road, as Danny baked in the cramped back seat of the vehicle. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead; he couldn't wait to arrive at this crummy old town and get out of that sauna. A sign whizzed past the window: "Gravity Falls". Not long now...

Eventually, Jack slammed his big foot on the brake pedal, and Danny barely avoided splatting into the seat in front of him. Jazz however, was not as fortunate, and got a faceful of fake leather.

Danny lept out of the RV, taking in the pleasant breeze, quickly followed by Jazz, who was massaging her face. A tattered looking shack stood in a clearing, the crumbling letters on the front read "The Mystery Shack".

"This is where we'll be staying," announced Maddie, pealing herself from her seat. "You kids can have the guest bedroom, we'll be sleeping in the RV."

"Well, at least we have a room," sighed Jazz. Danny wasn't sure if it was possible to survive the night in that oven of an RV, so jumped on the opportunity to sleep in the shack.

"Welcome to the Mystery Shack!" shouted an overweight man with a slightly stubbly face. "Where you can see the supernatural (for a price)!"  
He looked from family member to family member with his friendly face before exclaiming "Oh, You must be the Fentons, friends of Ford. Stan told me you were coming. He's not here yet, but you can come in."

They all crammed into a tacky gift shop, with a bored looking teenage girl at the til. All sorts of knick knacks adorned the messy shelves and racks. "I'll give you guys a tour," he said. "I'm Soos by the way. " 

They trekked through a maze of exhibits, while Soos gave enthusiastic commentary, most of which consisted of farfetched stories of monsters. "You don't actually believe any of that, right?" asked Jazz. "Monsters like that don't actually exist."

"Monsters do exist," Soos protested. "I've seen them with my own eyes."

"Yeah Jazz, monsters totally are real, just like ghosts," Jack chimed in.

"Oh yeah, you think that's a real monster?" questioned Jazz, pointing at a collection of animal limbs glued together, clearly fed up with her orange jumpsuited father's antics. 

"Um, well..." Jack started to say before being swiftly cut off by Maddie: "lighten up Jazz, this tour's just for fun."

Danny meanwhile, was inspecting what the sign said was 'Big Foot's foot', but actually seemed to be part of a gorilla costume. While Danny knew none of it was real, it was just for fun - it reminded him of a DIY haunted house he'd made before, minus some borrowed assets from the Ghost Zone, a dimension inhabited by creatures known as ghosts. 

The tour continued, with Jazz a little bit behind the rest of the group, sulking. "You agree with me, right Danny?" said Jazz.

Danny begrudgingly answered her, "I'd prefer being home, with Sam and Tucker, but I don't get a choice about going on this family holiday, so I might as well make the most of it."

"So you do agree with me," said Jazz.

"No, I never said that," Danny butted in. "Just stop complaining, we're stuck in the holiday together. You never know, there might be something interesting here."

"Like what?" questioned Jazz. "A monster? Those are just stories to get tourists to come here."

Danny sighed and sped up his walking to keep up with his parents, there was no winning this argument.

After a lot of made up stories and a few bad puns, they arrived back at the gift shop. The bored red haired teen looked up momentarily from her phone to acknowledge the family, then went right back to texting.

"So when can we go to our room?" asked Jazz impatiently.

"Follow me," said Soos, as he led Jazz and Danny to a room with two beds, one of each side of the room, and a circular shape on the floor that was less worn than the rest, as though a rug had been there.

"Dibs on the window bed," shouted Danny before Jazz could protest, and jumped onto the knobbly sheets of his bed. Jazz sat down on the bed opposite and sighed.

Before either of them could even open their mouths to talk a quick and repetitive knocking came from the other side of the bedroom door. "Hi! I'm Mabel! Who are you?" said the voice of an energetic girl. Danny climbed off his bed and shuffled over to the door, opening it in with a squeak from the hinges. A girl wearing a brightly coloured jumper beamed up at him from the other side of the door, and her brother, wearing a fluffy hat, ran after her, panting.

"Uh, hi. I'm Danny, and this is my sister, Jazz," said Danny, gesturing to Jazz, who was staring at the doorway. Mabel's brother made it to the doorway, breathing heavily, only to be grabbed by his sister and held by her arm while she gleefully introduced him to Danny and Jazz, "This is my twin brother, Dipper." Dipper gave a half-hearted "hi", and pulled himself out of Mabel's grip.

"Are you single?" said Mabel, out of nowhere, as Dipper seemed to be internally face palming.

"Um, what?" stammered Danny, looking to Jazz for help.

"Just ignore her," Dipper said hastily. "She does this with every boy she meets."

"Is it true that your family are ghost hunters?" enquired Dipper, his eyes lighting up with excitement as he did.

"Well, yes," said Danny hesitantly, only to be cut off mid-sentence by Jazz: "Our parents are. I'm not."

"That's so cool!" Dipper half-shouted with joy. "What do you know about ghosts? Where do they come from? Do you have ghost hunting equipment here? What do you use to hunt ghosts?"

Danny recoiled a bit from the bombardment of questions, and began what he expected to be a long explanation. "Ghosts are from a dimension known as the Ghost Zone, it's really different to our reality. We have a ghost portal that can access the ghost zone-"

"Wow, we have a dimensional portal too, not sure where it leads to though. Grunkle Ford went through it, we should get him to tell you about it," Dipper excitedly jabbered. This explanation was going to be a lot easier than Danny had expected, Dipper already knew about other dimensions.

"Knowing my parents, we definitely have some ghost hunting weapons with us. They wanted to come here because they heard that it's supposedly haunted," explained Danny.

"I don't know about Gravity Falls being haunted, we've only seen a few ghosts, but we have lots of monsters," said Dipper. "Like gnomes!" Mabel interrupted, her jumper glittering as she energetically moved around.

Danny glanced over at Jazz, who was now absorbed in the pages of a book, trying to ignore the talk of ghosts and monsters. The sun was beginning to set outside, turning the sky a bold, burning orange. The sounds of voices came from outside, and Dipper and Mabel quickly turned and ran to the entrance of the house.

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Ford!" Mabel and Dipper shouted at a duo of shuffling footsteps.

Danny followed in their footsteps towards the entrance. A pair of old men were hugging the twins, bags on the ground at their feet. Both were bespectacled with oversized ears and noses. One of the duo had a crack in his glasses , a stubbly face and, most interestingly, six fingers on each hand, while the other had the typical five fingers and a full grey beard.

The bearded man picked up Mabel in a friendly, enthusiastic hug as she laughed, while the other gave Dipper a more controlled hug. Soos somehow made his way into a hug with the bearded man as well, wrapping himself around him and Mabel.

Maddie and Jack emerged from the shack, and the six fingered man looked up from his hug. "Hello Ford," said Maddie, walking past Danny, who was now standing between the group and the shack, to go and shake the six fingered man's hand. 

"Hello, how was the journey here?" asked Ford in a friendly tone, trying to make conversation.

"It was fine. But Jazz was complaining, she didn't want to come here, she thinks it's a waste of time," said Maddie, with a tone of disappointment. 

Stan gave a snicker, Mabel and Soos still clinging to him. "Dipper and Mabel didn't want to come here at first, but now they love it here, didn't want to leave," he said. "I'm sure she'll love it here in no time." Ford nodded in agreement. This seemed to reassure Maddie a bit.

Jack walked up behind Danny and gave him a little nudge towards the group, encouraging him to introduce himself. Danny reluctantly walked towards Dipper and Ford. "And this is our son Danny," said Jack. Danny was secretly glad that he didn't have to introduce himself and politely greeted the old men: "Hi, my parents have told me a lot about you, nice to meet you."

The group walked into the shack, seating themselves around a living room. Danny sat on the floor, as all the seats were taken at that point, while Stan sat in a ragged armchair, which Danny assumed was his usual spot. A box of magazines was placed next to the chair, the magazine on the top reading 'Gold Chains for Old Men'. 

"So how have your adventures been?" asked Jack, failing to conceal his child-like curiosity and excitement.

Stan and Ford told stories of sea monsters and incredible phenomena, often interrupting each other mid sentence to add to the stories, while everyone else listened attentively.

"Wow, it's getting late," commented Stan glancing at the clock, which read 10:30. "We should probably get some sleep." He stood up and stretched, his back cricking more than Danny thought was healthy. Maddy and Jack agreed, while Dipper and Mabel complained, saying it was too early. Danny wasn't tired in the slightest, but complied, heading up to his room, tailed by Mabel and Dipper, who were excitedly discussing the stories their grunkles had told them.

Danny wished them a good night, and closed the door to the room behind him. He plopped himself on the bed and began texting his best friends Sam and Tucker. Some time later Jack poked his head and broad shoulders through the doorway: "It's time to sleep, you two. We'll be up bright and early in the morning to do family stuff together with the Pines." Danny and Jazz groaned, family stuff usually meant ghost hunting, and in all honesty, Danny was too used to ghost hunting to be thrilled by the idea. After using the bathroom and getting changed into their pyjamas, the children and adults alike went to bed. "Good night, little brother," said Jazz, switching off the orange-tinted light with a click. 

"'Night," Danny replied as he loosely covered himself with a thin sheet.


	2. Chapter 2

However, Danny was unable to sleep. He lay in his bed for what felt like hours, tossing and turning in his bed. He heard loud snores, at which point he looked over to Jazz, who was relaxed, her eyes closed, asleep. Danny sighed and decided to go for a little flight outside to relax.

After scanning the room for any cameras, he jumped up from his bed and rings of bluish-white appeared around his waist. One of the two rings went up his body, changing his pyjamas into a black hazmat suit with a white neck, and a stylised D in white on the front of the suit across his chest. His eyes glowed a neon, ectoplasmic green, and his hair became a glowing white. The other of the two rings went down his body, changing his pyjama bottoms to the trousers of the hazmat suit. He wore white boots and gloves, covering his previously bare hands and feet. Overall he had an ethereal look to him, like he didn't belong in the mortal realm.

Danny decided it would be best to turn invisible as he left, it would be too suspicious if he just flew out of his room completely visible.

He had gained ghost powers several months prior, and had kept it a secret from everyone except his best friends, Sam and Tucker, and his sister, Jazz. If he just waltzed out of his room in his ghost form his parents wouldn't take long to figure out that he's half ghost.

Danny turned invisible, and flew through the wall. He sighed as the cool night air brushed against his skin. He could use his ghost powers to lower his body temperature, but had decided not to around his parents, it would seem odd if he was the only person who wasn't boiling in the summer heat.

He flew away from the shack and became visible again over the dark, foreboding forest that surrounded the town. Various unidentifiable creatures roamed the woods, and Danny was glad that he didn't have to camp with them in there - being mauled by a wild animal wasn't on his list of holiday activities. All was silent, aside from the occasional shaking branch or gust of wind, and the town of Gravity Falls was but a few lights shining in cluster of dark streets. He took in a deep breath of fresh air, and let it out, marvelling at how calm the scene around him was. It was very different to life in Amity Park, where there was barely a moment with this sort of peace.

Danny began to fly closer to the trees, and in response, as though sensing his presence, the nocturnal birds took off, shaking the leaves, the masses of shadows shifting with the movement. He turned intangible, and flew through the branches that clustered and tangled around each other. Landing on a sturdy branch and sitting down, his legs dangling in the air, he observed his surroundings. A group of small creatures scurried along the forest floor, and Danny turned invisible as not to spook them, and flew down to get a closer look. On closer observation they were small rodents, with antlers? That was odd, he'd never seen any creatures like that before.

A crunching noise of footsteps stopped Danny in his thoughts, as he turned around to face what he expected to be a bear. Stan was walking through the trees, his eyes on the ground, wearing boxers and a tank top. Danny wasn't one to judge his clothing choices, and watched silently as Stan walked towards the Mystery Shack. 'I guess he must have also decided to go for a walk,' thought Danny.

Not long after this encounter, Danny figured it was probably a good idea to try and get some sleep, he had cooled down nicely, and was beginning to feel a bit dopey. He glided invisibly into his room, and was engulfed in his rings of light, returning to his human form and landing neatly on his bed. It wasn't long before Danny lost consciousness, sinking into his lumpy mattress.

• • •

"Wake up Danny, we're going ghost hunting!" The sound of his excited father was the sound that woke Danny from his slumber.

"What time is it?" asked Danny groggily, as the room came into focus.

"It's 7:30," replied Jack. "We'll have plenty of time to look for those putrid protoplasm."

Jazz was glaring at her father from her bed, as Danny blinked the sleep out of his eyes. "Okay," said Danny, still not fully awake. He dangled his legs off the bed and placed his feet on the soft floor, as his father left the room.

Danny yawned, and shuffled out of his room, down to the kitchen. Dipper and Mabel were already eating breakfast, bacon and eggs, coated in grease. Dipper had bags under his eyes, and Mabel was bouncing off the walls, full of energy. She wore a bright pink sweater with a goofy looking unicorn on the front. Stan was at the stove, a frying pan in his hand, still dressed in his boxers and tank top.

"'Morning," said Danny as he entered the room and walked towards an empty chair at the table.

"'Morning sleepy head," Stan chuckled as he dumped a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Danny. "Nice hair."

Danny's hair was poking out in random directions, looking more like a bird's nest than hair. "Oh, bed hair," mumbled Danny as he picked up his knife and fork. Mabel and Dipper tried to suppress their giggles, but only Dipper succeeded, muffled giggles sounding throughout the kitchen.

Danny finished off his breakfast, and left the table. "Thanks for the meal," he muttered, and headed to the bathroom, where he got ready for the day ahead, taking special care to rip the comb through his tangled hair. It wasn't exactly neat, it never was, but it was good enough.

He returned to his room, packing the essentials into a backpack: a first aid kit; a couple of water bottles; a Fenton thermos. Slinging his bag over his shoulder, he turned to the door, to see Dipper walking past, towards his and Mabel's room. "Hi Danny," said Dipper, noticing Danny standing in the room. "You got ready quickly."

"Uh, I guess," replied Danny, rubbing the back of his neck; this was a habit of his that he did when he felt awkward or nervous.

"Why aren't you and Jazz excited about ghost hunting?" asked Dipper, curiosity in his voice. "Isn't ghost hunting fun?"

Danny hesitated and answered: "Our parents are always ghost hunting, so we're kinda bored of it." 'And they couldn't catch a ghost if it lived under their own roof' he added internally.

This answer seemed to satisfy Dipper, who waved and continued walking to his room.

Danny went into the living room, where his parents were sorting through a pile of ghost hunting weapons. Jack was inspecting a particularly dangerous looking gun, while Maddie looked at him cautiously, not trusting him with such a powerful weapon. Maddie looked up and grabbed the gun in one swift movement. "Ready to go ghost hunting, sweetie?" asked Maddie, as Jack grumpily mumbled about wanting the cool gun.

Danny avoided eye contact and nodded unenthusiastically. He couldn't have just one normal holiday, without ghosts.

After about half an hour of waiting, Danny texting and using social media to pass the time, everyone was ready to leave for the ghost hunt. During this time Ford had discussed ghost hunting weapons with Maddie and Jack, exchanging notes on capturing and destroying ghosts. The families left the shack, with Soos pledging to 'guard the fort' and staying behind.

"Maybe we should start with 'Dusk 2 Dawn'," suggested Dipper. "There are a couple of ghosts there, an elderly couple." Mabel began snickering and muttered something about 'the lamby lamby dance', much to Dipper's annoyance. Danny noted how embarrassed Dipper looked, and decided not to ask about it.

"Good idea," said Ford. "Let's check there first." And with that the group began trekking to the abandoned store.

As they neared the 'Dusk 2 Dawn', walking down the alleyways on the edge of the town, Danny noticed a shadow of a figure pass by the window of the store. He slowed his pace to walk alongside Jazz, who was trying to avoid the rest of the ghost hunting group. "I think there's actually a ghost there," he whispered to his sister.

"Don't worry Danny, I'm sure it'll be fine. Just another urban legend," she scoffed. Just as she finished her last sentence, a wisp of freezing air drifted from Danny's mouth, like breath condensing in the cold, indicating that there was, in fact, a ghost there. This was Danny's ghost sense, that he had gained as part of his ghostly abilities, to tell him when a ghost was nearby.

"Just cover for me if you need to, okay," hissed Danny, just loud enough for Jazz to hear. She gave a quick nod and tensed up.

It didn't take long for Stan to notice that the two were more tense than before. "Are you two scared?" he joked, turning slightly to face them.

"No!" they both blurted out at once, leading Stan to chuckle and do a crude ghost impression. This slightly reduced the tension, but didn't put Danny or Jazz at ease. "Tough crowd," said Stan, turning around to the rest of the group. Dipper was interrogating Maddie and Jack about ghosts as they stopped outside the entrance to the store, but quickly stopped when everyone else went silent.

"Ready?" said Maddie, slinging an ecto gun over her shoulder. "When we go in there the ectoplasmic malefactors could attack us at any moment." Danny rolled his eyes at that, he was pretty sure that the ghosts were at more risk than his parents, he knew first hand that a large amount of ghosts aren't bad, and just want to be left alone.

Maddie pushed open the door, that hadn't been locked, inviting them into the dusty shop. The store was old and in a state of disrepair, with a candy display completely wrecked and cobwebs all over the aisles, but wasn't anything special. A chill ran up Danny's spine, as he swore he felt something, but it could have just been the sudden change from the hot outdoors to the unusually cool store interior. Maddy and Jack were scanning the store like hawks, searching for their prey, while Mabel was more excited than before, looking ready to climb up the shelves of out of date food and knick-knacks. Once the whole store had been patrolled by the hunters twice over, they concluded that the ghosts were hiding, to the disappointment of Dipper, Mabel and Stan, and the relief of Danny and Jazz.

"Jack, did you bring the ghost detector?" asked Maddie. 'Oh no, please no,' thought Danny, silently praying to whatever deity might care that they had forgotten it.

"Here it is!" shouted Jack, bringing out a scanning device and flicking it on. The device began to hone in on the area by the door where Danny and Jazz were standing, and Jack followed it, backing Danny into the wall.

"There's a ghost right in front of you. You would have to be some kind of moron to not see the ghost right in front of you," said the detector, in a monotone computer voice. Jack looked at Danny with a puzzled expression plastered across his face.

"Maybe it's outside?" said Danny, shrugging, and Jack ran out the store, quickly followed by Maddie.

Ghost tracking devices always honed in on Danny, it was a miracle that his parents hadn't worked out that he was half ghost. By far the worst tracking device his parents had made was the booomerang, which kept honing in on Danny and hitting him when it was thrown.

A minute passed and Maddie and Jack reentered the store looking defeated. "As much as I hate to admit it, there doesn't seem to be a ghost. The ghost detector must be faulty again," Maddy sighed. Danny failed to hide his slight smile at that, glad his parents had given up on this ghost.

"But we're going to keep searching, right?" said Dipper, a hint of hopefulness in his tone.

"There isn't really much point," replied Maddie defeatedly. "If there isn't a ghost here there's not much we can do."

Ford intercepted the conversation: "maybe the kids should go and play in the woods while we search for ghosts."

"I suppose that would be good," she agreed, ignoring a slight protest from Jazz at being called a kid. "It'd be good for them to get to know each other."

With that they left the store, Dipper, Mabel, Danny and Jazz heading away from the 'Dusk 2 Dawn', and the adults staying behind to continue the investigation.


	3. Chapter 3

"So what do we do now?" asked Danny, wondering if the others knew about something fun to do in Gravity Falls.

"What about swimming?" Mabel said. "There's a creepy lake in the woods-"

Dipper interrupted her: "That lake's gross, not creepy." He shuddered slightly, imagining what it would be like to swim in the lake.

"Do what you want to. I'm not joining in," said Jazz, still annoyed at being called a kid.

"Swimming it is!" cheered Mabel before anyone could argue. "Let's go get our swimming stuff." Mabel ran towards the Mystery Shack, with the others following behind at a slower pace. Dipper wanted to go back to the 'Dusk 2 Dawn', but had decided it was better to stay with Mabel, and stop her from doing anything stupid. As the shack came into view Jazz broke into a sprint, trying to reach the safe haven of her room, away from ghost nonsense. "Hey," yelled Danny, as he dashed after her. Dipper made an attempt to keep up with the running trio, panting between his shouts of "wait for me!"

Bursting into their room, Danny and Jazz immediately sat down on their bed and began panting. "Not bad Danny," said Jazz. "Who knew you could run?"

Danny laughed at this, and gave her a quick glare, before grabbing his bag full of stuff from under his bed and digging around for his swimming stuff. A very sweaty and out of breath Dipper passed by the doorway, as Danny found his swimming shorts and top. 

Danny went to the bathroom, and got changed into his swimming shorts, and a top made from the same material as his shorts. The top was quite baggy, this helped to conceal the fact that Danny was a lot more muscular than he seemed. He had gained a decent amount of muscle from ghost fighting, but had to act like a wimp to avoid drawing suspicion to himself. 

As he left the bathroom, Mabel ran to it, wearing a bright purple swimming costume, Dipper standing a bit behind her, wearing swimming shorts. Mabel looked slightly disappointed when she saw Danny. "Did I do something wrong?" asked Danny.

"No," replied Dipper, slightly annoyed. "She just wanted to see you shirtless. I swear that's the only reason she wants to go swimming, she thinks you're..." He got quieter and trailed off at the last part, and Danny burst into laughter.'This is a first,' he thought, most people just saw him as a wimpy nerd. 

The trio walked through the forest of evergreens, Mabel enthusiastically bashing plants out of the way with a large stick. "There it is!" shouted Mabel, pointing to a swamp-like lake, with pond weed all across the surface, floating on a gross green-brown liquid. 

"Is this stuff safe to swim in?" asked Dipper, prodding the surface of the lake with a stick, looking ready to barf at any moment.

"Of course it is, Dipstick," commented Mabel as she gave him a shove into the lake, where he landed with a sickening mix between a squelch and a splash. In an attempt to spare Dipper the embarrassment of being the only one covered in slime, Danny got a running start and grabbed Mabel as he went, flinging them both into the broth. Mabel let out a slight squeal, which was soon silenced by the landing into the lake. Dipper's head emerged from the lake, his hair covered in green slime, smiling slightly at the sight of his sister grimacing, equally coated in slime.

"What was that for?" she said angrily to Danny, who responded with a shrug and splashed murky lake water into her face while treading water. It didn't take long for a fully fledged water fight to start between the three teens, no one being quite sure who was splashing them in the chaos. 

By the end of the splashing war, they all looked like swamp monsters. Danny was sure his parents would have mistaken their slimy, mud covered forms for ghosts as they climbed out of the lake. 

Danny and Mabel escaped the lake with little difficulty, while Dipper kept slipping on the rocks at the bottom of the lake. Danny reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him to the safety of dry land. "Thanks," said Dipper, wiping swamp gunk away from his face and picking himself up onto his feet. 

"No problem," replied Danny, shaking himself in an attempt to remove the slime, to little effect. "Is there a clean lake anywhere around here where we could wash this stuff off?"

"Well, yeah," said Mabel. "But I'm pretty sure there's a big monster there."

"That was a robot," Dipper interrupted. "And that lake's quite far from here. We drove to it last time."

The trio trudged back to the Mystery Shack, concluding that that was the best place to clean off, all the while laughing and chatting.

"How are your hands so cold Danny? It's summer," Dipper enquired.

Danny nonchalantly shrugged. "I don't know, they just are." This wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth - Danny's hands were cold because his body produced cold from his core, making his body temperature lower than normal, even if he didn't actively use his powers.

"Maybe he's an ice witch," joked Mabel, making the others chuckle. Mabel wasn't exactly one to talk, somehow wearing a knitted sweater most of the time. Danny briefly wondered whether she had ice powers too, before concluding that she was just oblivious to the heat. 

The three left the forest, leaves stuck in their sticky hair. The adults had returned and Stan was sitting in a fold out chair on the lawn, looking up at the trio as they walked towards the shack. 

"Oh no you don't," he said as he jumped up and grabbed the hose from by the shack. "You're not stepping into my house until you're clean. I don't want to have to clean up your slime."

He began to pelt the trio with a jet of cold water until there was just a puddle of gloop at the feet of the now mostly clean teens. "How did you even get that stuff on you?" asked Stan, staring at the swirling puddle of gunk. 

"We went to the lake," said Mabel cheerily, shivering slightly as Stan turned off the hose.

Stan have a hearty laugh as he chucked a bunch of towels from inside the house at them. "You kids are crazy."

They jumped away from the puddle, and dried off, heading into the shack. Maddie and Jack were talking to Ford, Ford reading from and adding to a book of notes, with a hard cover and the shape of a six fingered hand on the front, with the number 4 in the middle; Ford appeared to be towards the end of his book. 

"Hello Danny-boy! Did you have fun with your new friends?" bellowed Jack, looking to the trio who had just walked in.

"Yeah," said Danny, in a notably quieter voice than his large father. "We went swimming in a lake." Dipper was attempting to rub the slime out of his hair, to little success.

"Hey, Danny, do you want to come to our room?" asked Mabel, while Dipper gave her a tired glance.

"Sure," replied Danny. "I'll just go get dressed."

He headed up to his bedroom, and opened the door. Jazz sat on her bed, feet on the floor, reading a book on neuroscience, a piece of paper with a doodle of a ghost sat next to her on the bed, atop a stack of books. Danny silently chuckled when he realised that the drawing was of the Box Ghost, an annoying, but mostly harmless, pest in Amity Park who never seemed to give up on his antics of attacking people with boxes and shouting, so matter how many times he was sent back to the ghost zone.

"I'm back," announced Danny. Jazz looked up from her book and gave a disgusted smile.

"Where did you go? You're covered in slime," she said, closing her book.

"The lake here is a bit gross," Danny said, smiling.

"That's an understatement!" exclaimed Jazz, moving her feet close to the bed as Danny walked past.

Danny picked up his clothes and walked back towards the door. "Do you want to go to Mabel and Dipper's room? It might be good to get to know them," Danny asked from the doorway.

Jazz paused, thinking about her answer, and replied: "Yeah, I guess I could do with a break from reading."

Danny waved and went to the bathroom, where he turned intangible to remove the remaining slime, and got changed into his normal clothes. He made sure to wash away the slime, and went up to the attic, where Dipper and Mabel slept.

Dipper was sitting on his bed, he had got changed into his normal clothes and was reading a book on ghosts, his hair was still gross, but was covered by his fluffy hat. Mabel was happily petting a pig, and was wearing one of her knitted sweaters, but other than that hadn't bothered to get changed into her normal clothes.

The room had an angular roof, and a triangle shaped window that looked down over the room. Mabel's side of the room was covered in posters of boy bands. In contrast to Mabel's side of the room, which had an unmade bed and glitter everywhere, Dipper's bed was made, with him sitting on top of his duvet, and had less glitter than Mabel's bed.

Jazz walked up behind Danny, making him jump. Noticing the pig, her face lit up and she walked up to Mabel, trying to join her in petting the pig.

"He's so cute," she said as the pig started snuffling her arm.

Mabel nodded. "He's called Waddles," she chirped, and the two of them focused on petting Waddles while making small talk.

"Oh, hi Danny!" said Dipper, putting down his book. Danny walked over and sat on Mabel's bed opposite him. "Hey," he replied casually.

"So, I know you're probably a bit tired of ghosts, with your parents being ghost hunters, but what's Amity Park like?" said Dipper.

"Well, we have a school, like any other town, and there's a good burger place called the 'Nasty Burger'," Danny said, quickly noticing that Dipper wasn't interested in that stuff. "And there are a lot of ghosts there, some are good, some are bad."

"There are good ghosts?" asked Dipper, curiosity and excitement engulfing every word. "Like who?"

Danny shifted awkwardly and replied: "Um, like there's a ghost that protects people, called Phantom. He fights bad ghosts, and helps people out when they're in danger."

Dipper was ecstatic, he had so many questions about life in Amity Park. "What other ghosts are there?" he questioned.

Danny took a deep breath and began to list them: "There's the Lunch Lady, the Box Ghost, there's a ghost dog, Technus, who's a ghost that controls electricals-"

"Wait, how do you know Technus' name?" interrupted Dipper.

Danny laughed: "He always does a long introduction when he attacks, and announces his plans." 

Dipper was slightly taken aback by this, Danny was talking so casually about ghost attacks, like it was nothing. "How often do ghosts attack Amity Park?" he enquired.

"Uh, most days, maybe a few times a day," Danny answered. "Most of the time no one gets hurt, the Box Ghost especially isn't much of a threat."

Dipper was a bit shocked, noticing this Danny quickly added: "The Box Ghost haunts boxes, you can't really take him seriously." Danny did his best impression of the Box Ghost, putting his hands in the air dramatically. " I am the Box Ghost, I have control over things cardboard and square."

Jazz snorted at Danny's impression, and Dipper admittedly had a hard time keeping a straight face. "I still think the name 'Crate Creep' fits him better," she said, making Danny give a muffled laugh.

"What's it like here, in Gravity Falls?" asked Danny, moving the conversation away from ghosts.

Dipper perked up: "There are lots of monsters in the woods, like gnomes, gremloblins, minotaurs...there are even dinosaurs here!"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "Dinosaurs, really?"

"It's true!" Mabel piped up. "I saw them, and Grunkle Stan fought one!"

"What are gnomes? And gremloblins?" asked Danny, Gravity Falls seemed about as crazy as his home, maybe even more, if that was possible.

"Gnomes are little men with pointy hats," said Dipper, and his sentence was completed by Mabel. "And they have one weakness, leaf blowers." Danny was sure there was a story behind that, but it would have to wait until he knew what a gremloblin was.

"And a gremloblin in a mix of a gremlin and a goblin," Dipper explained.

The conversation continued for a while, going back and forth, until Stan started yelling at them to come down for lunch.


	4. Chapter 4

They all crammed into the kitchen, with the adults standing with their meals, and the children (even Jazz, who refused to admit that she was a child) sat down at the table.

"Did you find any ghosts?" Dipper asked the adults, silently praying that they had.

Maddie shook her head: "Unfortunately not."

"There are ghosts there, I promise. They must have been hiding," Dipper insisted, as plateful of pasta was placed in front of him by Stan.

"We believe you," said Jack, waving his fork around. "Those pesky ghosts are everywhere, infesting our world, causing trouble all over the place."

Danny and Jazz meanwhile, were keeping their heads down as they ate, trying to keep out of the conversation.

"Not all ghosts are bad. I think Ma and Pa just want to be left alone," said Dipper. "They're just angry because they died because of teenagers."

Maddie was quick to shut down this idea: "Don't be silly, all ghosts are bad. They don't have feelings like humans do."

"But-" Dipper started to protest, before being cut off by Danny and Jazz. "You might as well give up, we've already tried to change their views on ghosts," said Jazz.

"Yeah, I don't want another argument about Phantom," Danny whispered.

Unfortunately for Danny and Jazz, Maddie overheard Danny's statement, and snapped back: "I've told you before and I'll tell you again, Phantom is not a good ghost. Sure, he might seem like it at times, but under that nice facade is another evil ghost."

"I've got to say, even though you've told me that Phantom's bad, I did some research of my own online, and he's done some pretty good stuff. Like he stopped a bus from falling off a cliff, and he-" said Ford calmly.

"And he ruined Christmas, remember that," shouted Jack.

"I'm pretty sure you two ruined Christmas with your constant arguments about whether Santa's real or not," Danny muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Dipper, Mabel and Jazz to hear. Jazz simply responded by putting her hand on Danny's shoulder, and giving him a comforting look.

It wasn't long before everyone finished their lunch, and the children left the shack to escape the argument about ghosts that was still going on in the kitchen.

As they left the shack a tall, red haired older teenage girl wearing a flannel shirt and a white and blue cap with a pine tree silhouette on called out to them: "Hey, Dipper, Mabel, wanna hang out?"

"Yeah!" shouted Dipper and Mabel at the same time.

Wendy noticed that Danny and Jazz were also there, and quite obviously didn't know who she was. "Oh, hey, I haven't been introduced," she said, gesturing to Danny and Jazz. "I saw you guys in the shack yesterday, are you getting along with the Pines?"

Danny nodded, and quickly introduced himself: "Uh, I'm Danny, and this is my older sister Jazz."

"I'm Wendy," said the girl wearing the cap. "So, how long are you staying here?"

Danny just shrugged. "A few weeks...I guess. Probably until my parents get bored and decide to go back to ghost hunting in Amity Park."

"Dipper must've had a lot of fun asking them about ghosts," she chuckled, and Dipper became visibly embarrassed. "Wanna mess around by the dump, you two can meet the rest of our friends," she said, directing the second half of her sentence towards Danny and Jazz.

And so the group set out to go to the dump, walking past the army of trees along the edge of the town, making jokes and small talk to pass the time, as they walked towards a heap of assorted rubbish, a couple of sofas and armchairs with mouldy cushions and a stack of mismatching tires were piled up in a dangerous looking tower. A group of teenagers were waiting there for them, most were texting, while one was precariously balanced atop one of the armchairs, looking out at the view, his long blond hair blowing in the gentle breeze that made the stack sway slightly.

As they arrived at the entrance of the dump, the teenager who had been sitting atop the armchair was now shouting to the others: "Hey! Guys!"

The group of older teens looked up to see Wendy, Dipper and Mabel enter the dump and wave happily to them, shouting greetings, with Danny and Jazz following behind, looking slightly unsurely at the choice of location.

"Who are they? Are they the tourists you mentioned?" asked a girl with deep pink hair with a light pink highlight to the side of her fringe, which was swept to the side.

Wendy nodded: "This is Danny and Jazz," she said gesturing to the Fenton siblings. Danny gave a small wave.

"Danny, Jazz, meet Tambry, Robbie, Thompson, Nate and Lee," said Wendy, pointing to each teenager in the group as she said their names. Tambry, the pink haired girl who had spoken earlier, was texting and looked up briefly as Wendy said her name; Robbie was a lanky pasty-faced boy with black hair, that fell across his head in clumps; Thompson was an overweight boy with mud brown hair that was styled to point upwards; Nate was a brown haired boy with bushy eyebrows, wearing a baseball cap, he had tattoos of lines and patterns on his upper arms; Lee, who had climbed down from his perch on the armchair, had long, blond hair that draped over his shoulders, and a long face, that was dominated by his chin.

"Oh, right," said Wendy, and took off her cap, and held it out to Dipper. "Let's swap our hats back for the summer."

"Oh yeah," he replied, and switched his hat for hers, placing the cap with a pine tree on top of his bushy hair.

"Wanna race to the cone?" asked Wendy, pointing to a neon orange traffic cone that has been precariously balanced atop the largest of the mounds of rubbish.

"Is that safe?" asked Jazz, eyeing the mound suspiciously.

"More or less," replied Wendy nonchalantly, shrugging, and Jazz took a step back.

"We're not climbing that. Right little brother?" said Jazz, but her words were falling on deaf ears, Danny had an excited expression plastered across his face, tugging his lips into a smile.

"Want to do the honours, Tambry?" asked Wendy, and Tambry looked up from her phone briefly and nodded, giving a thumbs up.

"On your marks!" she shouted, and the participating members of the group prepared to move. Mabel was hopping from one foot to the other, full of energy, her long hair whipping from side to side and up and down. Dipper was tensed, his eyes scanning the mountain of junk like a hawk for the best route up. Wendy was stretching, loosening her muscles and joints in elastic motions. Thompson stood in a stance that looked almost like a bad yoga pose, getting ready to run. Nate crouched slightly, one foot behind the other. Lee stood casually, balancing slightly on one foot, lifting the other slightly into the air. Robbie stayed sat next to Tambry and scoffed at the enthusiasm of his friends. Danny had joined the main group at the starting area, and was perched on his toes, ready to spring forward when they got the signal.

"Get ready!" Wendy stopped stretching and was now poised to spring forward at any moment, and the others seemed more focused.

"GO!"

All the racers jumped into a sprint the moment this word shot through the air. Wendy, Nate and Lee were tied for the first portion of the sprint, followed by Mabel and Dipper soon behind, then Danny, and last Thompson. Danny was never particularly good at running, especially not in his human form, but at least he wasn't in last; he was surprised by how fast Dipper was, he'd thought that Dipper was a skinny kid who was as bad at sports as he was.

When they came to the rubbish heap Nate and Lee began to fall behind Wendy, who was climbing up the miscellaneous objects like she'd been doing it for her entire her life, each step practised and precise, yet natural. Dipper and Mabel were still almost tied with each other, having overtaken Lee and Nate, Mabel slightly ahead, scrambling over dumped furniture, appliances and packaging. Danny was unusually light, caused by a combination of his slight frame and being half ghost, meaning that the junk beneath his feet didn't move much, making it easier to navigate the decaying hill; he managed to overtake Lee and Nate, catching up with Dipper and Mabel. Mabel kept stabilising herself with her arms flailing every time the junk slipped out from under her; while Dipper didn't have the same reflexes, and ended up face-planting into a lampshade, leaving room for Danny and Mabel to gain a lead over him.

The top within view, Danny sped up for the final sprint, only for Wendy to reach the top first and lift the cone into the air, panting, sweat pouring down her freckled face. "I win!" she shouted triumphantly, waving the cone from side to side. Danny had unfortunately not been able to stop in time, and ended up running right past her and over the edge, skidding down the cascading junk on his way down, landing on his butt on the sun-dried ground in front of a smashed car with its bonnet up, exposing a rusty engine with several pieces messily removed. An old man with a bushy dirty white beard and oversized red nose danced next to the open bonnet, his torn brown hat with a wide brim swaying with his gangling limbs from side to side, sticking a bandaged hand into the engine. Overall he looked very unusual, with a plaster stuck to his beard, and a torn pair of dungarees with a patch of fabric roughly sewn over the right knee. Wendy followed Danny's descent in a much more controlled way, sliding gracefully to the ground next to Danny. "Hi, McGucket! Anything interesting?" she called out. The old man looked up from the car, his arm still in the engine.

"Well I'll be darned, if it ain't you. I did see a flying spectre around those there trees last night, a child I tell you, he glowed like the full moon. I was all shaken up, gave me spooks," he rambled, shivering at the last part.

"What's this about a ghost?" asked Dipper as he came round the trash dump, his eyes sparking with interest.

"McGucket saw a flying boy over the trees, says he glowed," said Wendy, looking over in Dipper's direction as he and Mabel joined them by the broken car. Dipper's eyes grew wide in shock.

"A ghost boy?" he exclaimed. "What did he look like?"

"I didn't get a good look. He looked like a black and white shape from here, I'd swear his eyes were glowing an ungodly green, like swamp water in the spring," said McGucket, as Dipper took notes in a pad of paper he'd summoned from his vest pocket.

Mabel squealed, "was he hot?"

"I think he was more cold, like ice, like death," said the old man, shuddering at the last part. Mabel opened her mouth to speak, and immediately shut it.

"I can't wait to tell Ford," said Dipper, closing his notepad and shoving it back in his pocket. "I wonder how powerful it is."

"Now, don't mind me. I'm off to build a new doohickey of destruction," he said manically, ripping his arm out of the engine with a clump of car parts, and skipping off into the distance ungracefully.

Danny recovered from his shock, and got to his feet. "Do you really have to tell Ford? I mean, that guy, McGucket, is obviously off his rocker."

Dipper half shouted the next sentence: "He's a genius! Sure he might be a bit out of it at times, but wouldn't you if you were in his situation."

They hung out with the older teens for a while longer, with Mabel, Dipper and the older group catching up with each other after being away for almost a year, and Danny and Jazz chatting to each other some distance from the others, only joining in with the larger group when they had to.

"Someone saw Phantom?" she said quietly to Danny, whispering her next sentence. "Why were you even outside at night?"

"I needed to cool down and relax, okay," he whispered back. "How was I supposed to know that barmy old man would notice me? Let's just hope Mum and Dad don't find out, or Ford."

"Just be careful, little brother," she said before glancing to the rest of the group. They were all laughing and throwing small objects at makeshift targets, with Robbie and Tambry chatting and texting a little bit away from the others.


	5. Chapter 5

Danny decided to join in on the fun. There was no shortage of stuff to chuck at targets, and it was nice to be able to aim at targets outside of training.

The cans and boxes were repeatedly pelted with pellets of metal and plastic by the gang of cheering teens, then propped back up to endure another round of shots.

Danny was surprised by how good Dipper's aim was, as a small nerd, Danny had expected him to be about as good as he was before he got practice fighting ghosts, but Dipper was yet to miss a shot; he had a look of concentration before throwing, when you could practically see the cogs turning in his head as he calculated the ideal way to throw the object, considering the weight of the object, the distance, and the wind speed.

Mabel on the other hand was more erratic, and seemed to be throwing automatically, hitting the targets most times, and missing horribly other times. At some point she had started using a grappling hook to hit the targets, which only seemed to be noticed by Danny, the others not batting an eye at a young teenager firing a potentially dangerous hook all over the place.

Wendy had a killer aim, and was cheered on by her friends more enthusiastically than any of the others when she took a shot at the makeshift targets. Danny made a mental note not to get into a fight with her, she would undoubtedly wipe the floor with him under normal circumstances.

Danny was accustomed to target practice with ectoblasts, but had not had as much practice with throwing objects, thankfully he had inherited his mother's aim, hitting the cans on the dead centre nine out of ten times.

"C'mon Jazz, you're missing out on the fun over here," said Danny, looking over to see his older sister on her phone, trying to keep out of the chaotic target practice.

Reluctantly, she pocketed her phone, and shuffled over towards Danny, grabbing a stone on the way. "Fine, I'll play with you," she conceded.

Jazz spent a good minute doing mental calculations and adjusting her arm position before actually throwing, missing all the targets by at least a metre. There was no doubt in Danny's mind that she had inherited her father's aim.

The fun continued for at least an hour, with the sun dipping lower in the sky, casting stretched shadows that emphasised the scrapes and chips in the ground from rogue shots. The sweaty, laughing teens all seemed to come to the mutual agreement that it was time to go home, which was heavily supported by a few growling stomachs.

• • •

The trip to the Shack was mostly uneventful, the walking pace slowed significantly by excited chatter from Mabel and Dipper about what they wanted to do over the holiday. The smell of food wafted through the air, making the quartet of Mabel, Dipper, Danny and Jazz pick up their pace, galloping towards the promise of delicious food.

Stan was hunched over the stove, frying sausages in a pan of grease, with a bowl full of mashed potato on the surface next to the oven, which had a thorough coating of burnt fat and oil. A salad, which was unsurprisingly tiny portion compared to the other food items, sat on the middle of the table, in the centre of the kitchen/ dining room. Jack was blathering on about ghosts to an obviously bored Stan, who humoured him with grunts of 'okay' and 'm'.

"Hey kids, lay the table and we'll eat very soon," said Stan, cutting off Jack's happy drone. At those words Jack ran off to the living room, like an excited puppy going to fetch a stick.

Dipper grabbed the plates, while Mabel danced over to the cutlery drawer. Dipper neatly placed the plates, roughly equally from each other, seeming to make a point of shuffling away from the cutlery drawer on his way to the table. Mabel, on the other hand, practically hurled the cutlery across the room (Danny was now grateful for the fact that she had had target practice earlier, or else he might have been impaled). Jack returned with Maddie and Ford in tow, discussing improvements for their ghost hunting weapons, as the children dragged out chairs in anticipation of Stan's cooking.

"As researchers, I feel that it is our duty to understand the beings we study, not just destroy them," said Ford. "If there were a better way of capturing ghosts without harming them, it'd make my research much easier."

"While I respect that, do you really care about the well-being of post-human consciousness?" replied Maddie. "It's not like they can feel or anything."

"Isn't hurting ghosts a moral grey area?" asked Stan. "Do you really have proof that they can't feel?"

This, it seems, was a bad question, sparking the wrath of Maddie Fenton. "Well, no, but there's no proof that they can feel. Besides, they're already dead, they don't have nerves like humans do, just ectoplasm." Her voice rose in volume after every slight pause.

Stan glanced to the children for help, but they were already half-way into their meals. He lent over to Mabel and Dipper and said quietly: "Can I do stuff with you guys tomorrow? I don't know how much of this sciencey ghost stuff I can take." His voice was tinged with desperation, and he was staring his great niece and nephew right in eye.

Dipper and Mabel glanced at each other wordlessly and gave a firm nod in unison. Muffled snorts came from Danny, who was trying hard not to spit out the contents of his mouth at the display in front of him.

"I'm impressed that you lasted this long," commented Jazz. "Normally people don't make it for more than an hour with our parents."

Stan, Dipper and Mabel gave her a concerned look, and Stan spoke: "How do you put up with this every day?"

"I just ignore it," said Jazz, while Danny made an effort to straighten his face and swallow his food.

"I hang out with my friends most of the time," Danny said, still grinning.

Dipper piped up, "I think ghosts are interesting." This prompted the Fenton children and Stan to give him an alarmed look and make shushing noises, Jazz even went as far as slapping a hand across his mouth to silence him. Stan glanced over at the other adults and let out a sigh of relief.

"Good, they didn't hear you. Trust me kid, you might be a special case 'n' all, but I don't think even you could handle them," Stan warned with a hushed voice. "Just don't say the word around them, you might set them off; I have some nice, new scorch marks on the ceiling because of them."

This seemed to shut Dipper up, though he still had a glint of curiosity in his eyes, he wasn't in any immediate danger.

"Right, who wants to watch reruns of Ducktective, like old times!" announced Stan. He was met with a couple of shouts of "me!" from Mabel and Dipper, and some unsure 'okay's from Danny and Jazz.

Depositing their plates and cutlery in the sink, the group crept past the scientists, who were still in a heated discussion, and settled down in front of the TV, Stan claiming the armchair and flicking on the screen, which began showing an infomercial about a nonsensical item before the channel changed.

The Pines cheered and clapped at the episode, which Danny had to admit was pretty good. The duck had begun to investigate a case about a disappearance and treasure when Jazz decided to interrupt. "But-"

"Can we just watch this without you analysing it, Jazz?" Danny cut her off.

Jazz huffed and brought out a large book, burying her nose in it. "It's obvious what's going to happen, little brother."

"Good for you," he sulked. "Not all of us are geniuses here."

The tone for the rest of the show was soured by that interaction, leaving a foul mist of anger to slowly dissipate. It wasn't that Danny was jealous of Jazz, but he wished she could let him enjoy his 'mindless entertainment'.

When the conclusion came, accompanied by a long explanation from the murderer, Danny couldn't help but hide his smug expression when he asked Jazz whether she got it right.

"I wasn't one hundred percent," she said, scowling at Danny's shit eating grin.

Dipper and Mabel made their way to their room after the episode ended, prompting Danny and Jazz to also climb the rickety stairs to their own room. This had the added bonus of avoiding their parents, who entered the living room before Stan could escape.

Danny flopped out on his bed, arm draped over the side. An orange glow cascaded through the open window, as the net curtain drifted in the lazy breeze. A symphony of crickets echoed around the room and the trees outside. The lack of sleep from the night before, and the day's activities caught up to him, and he was out before he could even think about getting changed into his pyjamas or putting on the duvet.

• • •

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Danny awoke slowly, vaguely aware of the sound of footsteps outside, moving further away from the window, towards the forest. As the footsteps became almost inaudible, Danny began to take in his surroundings. His duvet had been neatly placed over him, and he was still wearing his day clothes. Jazz was sound asleep, hugging her teddy bear and facing the wall. Moonlight illuminated his surroundings, and he looked to the sky, mentally tracing the constellations in the sky: Leo; Virgo; Ursa Major, with the Big Dipper. He turned his attention to the forest, where a dull, yellow light shone from the depths, striking the surrounding evergreens.

Since he was awake anyway, he decided to take his pyjamas and go to the bathroom. It was better to get ready for bed at...Danny turned on his phone, being blinded for a moment by the flash of the screen, and focused his strained eyes on the time: 12:06 AM.

He returned to his room, now wearing his star themed pyjamas and with clean teeth, he dumped his day clothes on the floor by the foot of the bed and once again drifted off to sleep, this time under the cover of his thin duvet.

• • •

The harsh sunlight shone on his closed eyelids, making it so that all he could see was red. His eyes fluttered open and he used his arm to shield his eyes from the attacking rays. The room has exactly the same as it had been last night, right down to Jazz's bed, which still contained her sleeping form, curled away from the outside world.

Danny had an idea, a cruel idea, a funny idea. He gently lifted the biggest, heaviest book he could find, a large hard back book with over 300 pages, manoeuvring it to right next to her head and opening it to the middle, with one hand on either side, and SLAM! Jazz shot up, hair frizzled and eyes wide, ready to fight any potential threats. It was then that she saw her little brother doubled over with laughter. She gave a sarcastic "hilarious", drawing out the word an annoying amount.

"C'mon Jazz, it was funny," he wheezed in-between snorts of laughter. "How often do I wake up earlier than you in the morning? I never get to do that."

Jazz punched his arm with as much strength as she could muster. "Ow!" Danny rubbed his boney arm. "Okay, I kinda deserved that." Jazz gave a murmur of confirmation and Danny backed away to sit down on his own bed.

The Fenton duo made their way to the kitchen, surprisingly the first ones up. After a short search of the cupboards they found several boxes of cereal, all cheap off-brand ones. Jazz helped herself to wheat biscuits, while Danny scoured the boxes. Fruitloops, nope, he saw Vlad more than enough at home, he'd rather not be reminded of him here; plain porridge, ew, gross. He settled on chocolate wheats, tipping a mountain of them into his bowl. He took the carton of milk from the table and began to pour it in his bowl, only to be startled by a cheerful voice, resulting in some spilling onto the table.

"Hi, good morning," chirped Mabel, skipping into the room.

She received a grunt of "morning" from Danny, who was now mopping up the spilt milk, and a friendly "good morning" from Jazz.

Mabel looked at Danny's face as he sat down and grabbed his spoon. "Did you sleep well?" she asked, and upon getting a nod and look of confusion from Danny, continued. "Your bags rival Dipper's, and that's saying something. He once stayed up for a couple of days trying to guess the password for a laptop."

"That's not good. Brain function massively diminishes when you're sleep deprived," said Jazz, giving a look of disapproval to Danny when he lowered his head to ignore her, suddenly immensely interested in his soggy wheat.

Mabel nodded happily and moved over to the blender, placing several items in it which most people would not deem safe for human consumption. "Please tell me you're not making Mabel juice," said Dipper, stepping into the room.

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," replied Mabel, flipping the blender on. An ungodly cacophony of whirring and crunching erupted from the machine.

Dipper raised his voice to be heard over the blender: "I did try it once. I had a stomach ache for the next few days, remember?"

"But it's energising," said Mabel, now switching off the blender, satisfied with the mixture of sugar and glitter.

"But I was sick!" protested Dipper, waving his arms manically.

"Pfft, details," scoffed Mabel, nonchalantly swishing the jug of 'juice'. "Who wants Mabel juice?"

A chorus of "no thanks" and "I'm good, thanks" came from the others.

"'Morning!" Jack bellowed, squeezing into the kitchen, wearing his signature orange jumpsuit.

"On second thoughts, can I have some Mabel juice?" sighed Danny, this gained him questioning looks from Jazz and Dipper. Mabel obliged, dropping a cup of fluorescent liquid by his bowl.

"You're not seriously going to drink that, right little brother?" asked Jazz.

Danny swiftly proved her wrong by downing a mouthful of Mabel juice. "It's not that bad."

Dipper looked gobsmacked. "Are your taste buds dead?!" he exclaimed, and Danny snorted into his cereal.

Jack took the moment after this as the perfect time to start a new conversation, his voice booming throughout the small room. "So, what are you kids going to be doing today?"

"We're going to be looking for a fire breathing rooster," said Mabel.

"A basan to be precise. It's a ghostly rooster-like creature that breathes cold fire," Dipper clarified.

Jack began tearing up, he gave Danny a firm pat on the back, almost making him choke on the cereal in his mouth. "My Danny and Jazzerincess are hunting ghosts, I'm so proud."

"I'm not hunting ghosts, I'm just here because I had to come on this holiday with you," argued Jazz, taking her empty cereal bowl to the sink.

Everyone got ready for the coming day, with Danny making sure to bring extra ghost hunting weapons and his thermos, just in case. It was 9 am by the time everyone in the expedition group was ready to go. Stan was the last to arrive out the front, a tough, but worn looking, bag slung over his shoulder. Mabel had her grappling hook, while Dipper brought a book with a red, hard cover. Jazz, like Danny, had a light load of ghost hunting equipment, a first aid kit and water.

The group set out into the forest, the looming branches blocking out the scorching sun, leaving a breeze to pleasantly cool the air below. Brightly coloured mushrooms and spiralling plants dotted the mulch, and the trees contorted themselves in bizarre shapes, knots watching their every move as the intrepid group traversed the untrodden trails. Stan pocketed the occasional animal skull or odd stone, throwing it into his bag. It was unnerving just how many animal skeletons there were, like a pack of ravenous beasts had passed through, devouring all in their path, leaving only bones.

Dipper and Mabel, leading the group, spotted something in the tangle of leaves, they froze, just staring at the object. Danny shuffled forward, peeking past the trees. There was a statue, a triangle with a single eye, unblinking on its face, wearing a top hat, standing with its arm outstretched for a handshake. Moss was plastered across the stone surface, slowly wearing it down with its roots.

A single word was breathed by the Pines twins and Stan. "Bill."


	6. Chapter 6

Danny was perplexed to say the least, they seemed shocked to see a statue out in the woods after all their tales of monsters and adventures. It seemed rather unextraordinary, made of a plain grey stone with smooth sides, but had a faint aura of danger about it.

"Who the heck is Bill?" asked Danny, looking over to the Pines trio.

Stan looks over his shoulder before speaking. "We're not really supposed to talk about it, some stuff about acting like this town isn't weird, but Bill is an evil dream demon, who caused the Weirdmagedon last year, he nearly took over permanently, but we stopped him. He's bad news, and that's what's left of him." He finished his speech by gesturing to the triangle husk.

"We should get the heck away from here," said Stan, assuring the children on their way, and stealing a glance back at Bill's remnants. "It gives me the creeps."

Mabel and Dipper seemed completely okay with leaving the statue behind them, but Danny was a little harder to shift, the statue had an eerie feeling about it, but was oddly intriguing. Jazz followed without needing to be pulled away, quickly becoming bored with the petrified triangle.

After a while of trecking through the forest, with a lunch break of squished sandwiches, courtesy of Stan. The sun began to set, casting a an ashy orange hue across the trees and sod. Instead of the usual day time critters, which included the occasional gnome, there were now bats with cape-like skin flaps and the discordant symphony of crickets and owls, along with the rough scamper of diurnal beasts running for shelter.

"I hate to be a killjoy, but we should probably start going home now. Although from what I've heard, your parents are used to late nights, Danny, you little scamp," hollered Stan. Danny took some time to understand what had just been suggested about him, but when it hit him, his ears practically glowed red.

"But Grunkle Stan..." whined Mabel.

"C'mon, just a bit longer," Dipper joined in, tugging on Stan's arm to guide him further into the forest.

"Um, guys?"

"Fine. When's your curfew kid?" Stan complied.

"Guys" Jazz was getting a bit agitated at being ignored.

"Ten. Does that mean we get to stay out until then?" said Danny.

"GUYS!" shouted Jazz, grabbing everyone's attention. "Is it just me, or is it too quiet?"

A deathly silence hung over the forest, coverig it like a thick blanket. A warm blue glow emanated from the distance, getting closer, engulfing the trees in dancing flames that licked the bark sucking the life from it.

"That, is the Basan," announced Dipper, torn between pure fear and uncontained joy.

Danny dumped his bag on the ground with a metallic thud, and withdrew several guns and a thermos, shoving the guns into the others' hands. His eyes remained fixed in the inferno the entire time, unblinking. "Use these when it comes into range."

Mabel twiddled with the gun, sending a shot into a nearby tree and barely missing Danny's head, as he had ducked to avoid it. "Cool!" she cried exuberantly, and began shooting seemingly at random into the blaze. The fires died down slightly when they came into contact with the ectoplasmic blasts. Danny activated the thermos and a small gun, as a cry pierced through the silence, like the unholy fusion of a rooster and a banshee. The owner of said cry was not far behind, parading through the flames. It must have been at least a metre tall, with scales in the place of feathers, not so much a rooster as a bird-like dragon. No sooner had it poked its beaked head out of the flames than a flury of blasts hit it, and all its surroundings. Scorches brandished the trunks and the leaves turned to ash, crumpling, but the Basan seemed not to take much damage, just sustaining a few burns.

"Fall back!" yelled Danny heaving his bag onto his shoulder and backing away from the fire breathing monster. The shots died down and the group turned tail and ran. This seemed only to enrage the basan, who took this as a sign of disrespect, and leaped forward, charging at Jazz, who was at the back of the group.

A sharp punch hit it square in the eye, and sent it recoiling back, as it had tried to maul the redhead. The basan glared daggers at Danny, who pointed his gun right at its head and shot from a point blank range.The basan sent off a dying ember as it collapsed, burning a small hole in Danny's trousers, akin in appearance to pushing a cigarette butt into the fabric.

"Is it dead?" asked Dipper after a moment of silence.

Danny shook his head. "I think it's just unconscious. It doesn't seem too hurt." He took the cap off the thermos and pointed it at the comatose bird with a scorch mark across its face, activating it. The basan was pulled in like a spider in a plughole, and Danny capped the thermos, trapping it in the pipe.

"Why did you want to look for that thing?" exclaimed Stan. "We could have died!"

Dipper stammered for a response, but none came. An awkward silence stretched the seconds out between them. "Um, we didn't die, that counts for something, right?"

Stan sighed and cricked his back, before nodding. "If I were a responsible parent I'd go on about how it being dangerous and stuff, but I'm your grunkle, so I'll give you credit for at least choosing something ghostly."

"It was still highly irresponsible, you didn't know for certain that ghost weapons would work against it," Jazz berated. "And you," she shot Stan a venomous glare, "should be acting more responsible - having a parental figure who acts as a good role model is important for psychological and emotional development in children."

The group all began heading back through the forest, with Danny apologising about Jazz being 'a shrink in training', and quickly dodging the tickling hands that soon came his way. He put on a little burst of speed, using Stan as a shield between himself and his vengeful sister, with Stan scoffing "kids".

The scenery on the way back was almost unrecognisable, with occasional glowing mushrooms and an ominous aura emanating from the towering trees - few even seemed to move to grab at their clothing, eyeing them up with dark knots and slits. Jazz, unlike Danny, hadn't adjusted to the level of weirdness in Gravity Falls, and hopped to the side to dodge a reaching branch, hitting Dipper in the process. Small setbacks and collisions aside, the journey was largely uneventful - it seemed as though the forest creatures could sense the trapped ghostly presence that had been thrown into Danny's bag, resulting in a deathly silence.

Arriving back at the shack, the group was approached by a slightly ticked off and concerned Maddie Fenton. Both Danny and Jazz shrunk back, expecting a lashing of words. Maddie gave Stan a glare: "What time do you think this is? Why didn't you tell me that you'd be in the woods until ten? You all have phones don't you?" 

A chorus of "sorry Mom" and "sorry Mrs Fenton" sounded in response. Maddie sighed. "You lot might as well come and have dinner. But don't think this means you're off the hook." 

Stan gulped nervously and shuffled past Maddie towards the Shack's front door. "Come on then kids, let's shove some bread or pasta or something in your faces."

Dinner was hasty, and consisted of roughly cut bread with jam slathered on top. Danny was the first to finish, after practically inhaling his food, and hauled his bag over his shoulder and brought his plate over to the empty sink. "Oh yeah, what did you do with the Basan? Is it still in your bag?" asked Dipper, Danny internally groaned. 

He shielded the bag with his side and replied cautiously: "Yes, it's in the Fenton thermos."

Dipper's eyes lit up. "I'd like to see it, take some notes, y'know."

"You want me to release a fire breathing, aggressive creature? In a house that's mostly made of wood?" Danny deadpanned, having to hide a triumphant smirk when Dipper's face fell. 

"Danny's right, it's best if we keep it in the thermos until it's safe to release it, and even then it won't be into captivity, it'll be far away from the shack and the town," said Jazz, suppressing a shudder at the thought of what might happen if the Basan were set loose in the town. 

Dipper scowled. "Fine, keep it in the thermos. I'll ask Ford about making a containment device for the Basan tomorrow."

That was all the encouragement Danny needed to speed out of the kitchen and up to his room, where he dumped the bag at the foot of his bed. He wanted nothing more than to collapse into his bed as all of his exhaustion from the day caught up with him, but the task he had to do that night was far more pressing, there was no way he was going to let Dipper release the Basan - the kid must have a death wish, not that Danny was one to talk. Grabbing the bag again, Danny went to the bathroom and got ready for bed in record time. 

Still keeping the bag close, Danny sat on his bed, messaging Sam and Tucker on his phone, informing them of the day's events, with Sam adamantly stating that he should release the Basan back into the woods. Time flew by and soon Jazz entered the room to collect her pyjamas and toothbrush. "Hey," said Danny, not bothering to look up from his phone. 

"Danny, you didn't have to be so rude to Dipper earlier. You really annoyed him," Jazz chastised, frowning at Danny, who was now saying goodnight to his friends. 

"Yeah, well, I don't want him experimenting on the Basan, and neither does Sam," Danny glared at Jazz, but couldn't keep it up, knowing she was just being bossy. "That's why I'm going to release it in the woods."

"Okay, little brother. Just be careful, you don't want anyone seeing you again," said Jazz, whispering the last bit. 

Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I get it Jazz."

Once everyone was in bed, Danny brought forth a galaxy of light from his waist, shifting into his ghost form (he could hear his dad's snoring, so figured the coast was clear). Now floating a few inches off the ground, he collected the thermos with the Basan and drifted towards the wall. "Night Jazz," he said as he phased through the wall. Flying invisibly through the forest, he followed the same route as earlier that day, using the trampled wildlife as a path, passing the statue on his way. He stopped when he saw the destruction that the Basan had left in their last encounter. The trees were shrivelled and lifeless, singed and blackened, the grass no more than ashes. 

"I'd better not regret this later," said Danny, turning his head away from the thermos and hitting the release button. True to expectations, to say the Basan was annoyed would be an understatement, it was spewing fire from the moment it formed from its misty state, the snake-like slits of its glowing red eyes glaring holes through everything around it. It gave off its horrible shriek, which almost rivalled Danny's ghostly wail in its sheer intensity. Danny held up his hands in surrender when its glare turned to him. "Hey, I don't like the thermos either buddy, just do me a favour and don't burn the entire forest down." Turning tail and speeding away from the furious cockerel, Danny could still hear its screeching for at least a mile. He chuckled to himself: "Man, he and Tucker should do a duet." Several animals jumped as Danny whooshed past them, the wind ruffling their fur and feathers. A couple of winged eyeballs crashed into a tree, much to Danny's amusement and surprise.

Danny slowed down to a gentle cruise when he heard the sound of muttering up ahead, double checking that he was invisible, he drifted towards the voice. A yellow light soaked the shrubberies and glinted off the triangle statue at the feet of the speaker. "So I can't get out of this body on my own, that's a pain. I suppose it only makes sense that I can't make a deal with myself." The voice was shrill and grating, something about it was off, like the voices of the ghosts that inhabit Amity Park, but somehow different. It sent a chill down Danny's spine, making him shudder to his core. The voice stopped speaking abruptly, yellow cat-like eyes locking onto Danny. Stan stood there in his boxers, with glowing eyes, an inhuman smile stretching across his face as he looked at the invisible teen. "You might as well stop trying to hide, Danny Phantom, I know where you are." Danny's mind was sent reeling, first jumping to the idea that Stan was overshadowed, before remembering that his ghost sense hadn't gone off, and spiralling backwards into confusion. He backed away, hairs standing on end, dropping his invisibility in shock. "Now what might the famous, or should I say infamous, Danny Phantom be doing in Gravity Falls?" Danny struggled for words. This was wrong, this wasn't Stan. "Don't bother, I already know. Nice holiday, huh?" 'Stan' took in Danny's immediate fear with satisfaction, as Danny backed up against a tree.

"Who are you?" he blurted out at last. 

'Stan' cackled manically, not stopping until he finally ran out of air in his lungs and began spluttering. "Stupid human body," he muttered, before gesturing to the triangle statue to his right, a statue with the same mad, vertical slit pupil eyes. "Oh, I'm sure the Pines will tell you all about me with a little pestering. You already know my name don't you?"

One word, a name, clicked in Danny's mind. "Bill."

Bill's large eyes curved upwards as his smile reached his ears. He stepped forward, looking Danny dead in the eye and spoke, menace dripping from every word. "I'd warn you not to tell anyone what you've seen here, but you have a secret identity to keep, so I suppose you aren't a concern." 

Danny dropped down to the ground, lightly touching down on the dirt, absolutely flawed. Bill began a slow trudge back to the shack, and called out over his shoulder, grinning evilly. "I'd say it's your bedtime, wouldn't you?" Before walking calmly away. 

Danny stared blankly at the statue. "What's so special about this statue?" he asked, kicking it lightly, knocking it over. Cautiously, he picked it up. Inspecting it, he could sense a sort of residue, which filled him with an unearthly feeling, but it was empty, like it was hollow, yet heavy. He brought it up above his head, and brought it crashing down, smashing it into a nearby tree. A chunk of bark went flying off, ricocheting off the surroundings, but the statue was largely unharmed, with just a chip taken out of the hat. 

Locating a nearby rock, Danny repeated the action, crushing the rock below with the force. The hat went flying off this time, landing amongst the rubble of the rock. He tried this several more times, desecrating the statue against every rock or boulder in the area, before looking at the shattered pieces, satisfied with his work. Panting, he lifted up into the air and powered up an ectoblast, shooting it into the pile of shards, charring and maiming them beyond recognition. Concluding this as a job well done, he took off, leaving the scorched underbrush behind him. Back at the shack Stan was sleeping, Danny would have sworn that he'd have been there for hours, great snorting snores coming from his drooling mouth, if it weren't for the dirt on his bare feet. Concluding that there was nothing he could do as of then, Danny glided into his bedroom, plopping down on his bed with a flash of light. Pulling the thin covers over himself, he looked over to see Jazz cracking open her eyes. "How'd it go?" she asked groggily.

"You might want to wake up now, you'll never believe what happened just now," said Danny, flicking on the lights. 

Jazz propped herself up, observing her brother's concerned expression, and listened to his every word as he explained. 

"So, you're telling me that Stan is being possessed by this Bill guy, and he knew about your secret identity?" she summarised for herself. "I guess they'll need a ghostly hero now, huh?" Ignoring Danny's scowl, she continued. "Don't worry, I'll cover for you if you need it. But right now you should sleep. Don't think Mom and Dad won't notice when you're like the walking dead." 

Danny snorted and fell back into his bed.


	7. Chapter 7

"Rise and shine!" Jack Fenton's booming voice broke through Danny's sleep, prompting him to shoot up in bed at the sudden loud noise. The sun poured through the window, Jack standing to the side, tying the curtain back. Danny groaned and dropped his legs off the side of the bed. Jazz had already left the room, leaving her bed neat behind her. "It's lovely day today, up and at 'em," encouraged Jack, prompting Danny to slink down the stairs and into the kitchen. 

He automatically located the cereal and quickly began eating breakfast. Dipper and Mabel were seated at the table, Dipper excitedly conversing with Ford, who was stood next to him by the counter. Jazz was absorbed in a book, doing a good job of blanking out the rest of the world while she ate - particularly the ghost-related conversation that Dipper and Ford were having. "Hey, Danny, we've worked out a way to contain the Basan, you can give it to me now," Dipper called out to Danny, who wanted nothing more than to have the earth swallow him whole at this moment. After a painful few seconds of silence, Danny shrunk back into his chair and slowly shook his head.

"What?" exclaimed Dipper. "You do have it don't you?"

"I, um, let it go," Danny said reluctantly. "Away from the shack, and the town."

Unfortunately for Danny, his mother had been listening in on this conversation, and she was livid. "You went out in the forest, alone, at night!?"

Danny wished he could just turn invisible there and then. "Um, yes?" Danny said nervously. "But, I wasn't alone, Stan was there too, so it wasn't dangerous or anything." Danny added, trying to shift his mom's focus off of him. Stan began to choke on his corn flakes, which apparently seemed to be all the proof Maddie needed to give him a death glare as well.

"I have no idea what you're talking about kid," he said, dismissing the claim.

Thankfully, Jazz chose that moment to interject. "Danny was with Stan, don't worry Mom, I spoke to Danny afterwards, he's fine, I checked." Danny gave Jazz a sideways glance, praying that their mom would buy her lie.

"Well, if you say so..." Maddie conceded. "But I don't want to hear of any more late night escapades, and you have to be back here by eight in the evening, latest. Danny let out a breath in an almost comically exaggerated sigh.

Dipper gave Danny a suspicious glare. "Why would you let it go?"

This time, Danny could actually tell the truth, more or less. "Because it doesn't seem right to let you experiment on it. It belongs in the wild, not in captivity as a lab rat."

Dipper opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water. "I wouldn't experiment on it!" he shouted.

Danny pushed his chair back and carried his bowl to the sink. "Maybe you wouldn't, but Ford would, and so would my parents," he said bluntly.

"That's not true, right Ford?" Dipper protested, but Ford merely shook his head.

"Well, I was intending on doing some experiments," he began. Danny stood smugly, then tried to get his face back into a neutral expression, and strolled back to his room to get dressed and ready.

He returned downstairs just in time to see that the other children (Jazz included) were either leaving the kitchen or had already gone. His parents had decided to go on a ghost hunt early, to 'get a head start on the spooks', leaving while telling Danny to behave. He walked into the living room, only to come face to face with Stan and Ford, who were bickering, standing confrontationally. Danny stood in the doorway, watching the events unfold, practically holding his breath.

"For the last time, I didn't go into the forest with him," said Stan, annoyance lathered onto every word.

Ford folded his arms. "Then why were your footprints on the ground when I came down this morning, and why was there dirt in your room?"

"I don't know," yelled Stan. "Maybe because I went outside until late yesterday, and I didn't shower? Did you ever think that there might be a normal explanation for stuff, instead of the cooky craziness that you study?"

"I don't study 'cooky craziness'! You know what? I need to check on the statue, you could be possessed by him for all I know," Ford gestured angrily, pointing at Stan's chest at the end of his short speech.

Stan scowled and stormed out the room. "He's gone, and you know that, I'm not freaking possessed! Enjoy your check up, tell me how interesting a hunk of stone is."

Danny flattened himself against the wall as Stan stomped past, his breathing shallow.

Ford was staring at him, dumbstruck. "How much of that did you hear?" he asked.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Um, most of it?"

"Did he really go to into the forest with you last night?" Ford questioned.

Danny shuffled his feet and stared at the ground. "Um, uh, no. That was kinda just to get my mom off my back. Sorry. Please don't tell her."

Ford shook his head, and ran a hand down his face. "Ugh, I should probably go and apologise to him now." He began to walk past Danny, then stopped. "You didn't happen to see anything, unusual in the woods last night, did you?"

Danny bit his tongue. "There was someone, a figure, on my way back from releasing the Basan. I think they had a flashlight."

Stan eyed him curiously, processing the half truth, and proceeded to walk away with a brief "thanks".

Dipper came down soon after, accompanied by Ford, and gave Danny the cold shoulder every moment they were in the same room. The duo set off into the forest, leaving Danny flicking through TV channels, skipping past all the infomercials and dramas before settling on a cheesy horror movie. Jazz settled down next to him, but preferred to keep reading her book. "Where did Ford and Dipper go?" she asked.

"To see the statue, Ford's worried," Danny explained. The protagonists in the movie were hiding under a bed from a cheap monster costume, which was currently banging on the door half heartedly.

"The statue you destroyed last night?" she said. "How will you explain that?"

The monster burst through the door and began looking around the room, the mask flopping comically.

Danny grinned slyly. "Easy, I won't. Ford asked me if I saw anything unusual last night, and I told him that I saw a figure and I thought they had a flashlight, so I'm safe." The monster found the people under the bed, who all gave obvious fake screams.

"That's really smart, little brother," said Jazz. "Do you think they'll work out about Stan?"

The monster on the TV began to attack the people with a plastic knife.

"I think so, Ford already thought that Stan might be possessed - why did you think Ford wanted to check on the statue?" Danny said, then his face fell. "Bill tried to threaten me when I saw him, said not to tell anyone. He seemed dangerous, but I don't think he'll act yet."

He hopped up from the armchair. "I'm going to ask how they beat him last time. Want to join me?"

The Fenton siblings found Mabel in her room with a couple of young teenage girls, who were soon introduced as Candy and Grenda. Danny and Jazz politely declined the offer to have a makeup party, especially upon seeing the clown-like makeup on the pig's face - apparently Mabel didn't seem to realise that lipstick was only meant to be put on lips and not the entire face.

"So I guess we'll have to ask Stan," Danny said as they walked down the stairs.

Stan as it turns out was easy to find, being in the gift shop. Seeing them approaching and already anticipating a request he quickly spoke. "You're not getting any free stuff."

Jazz was taken aback by this outburst. "What? No, we just wanted to ask about something."

Stan raised an eyebrow. "We were wondering, erm, how did you beat Bill last time?" Danny continued.

"This is about what Ford said earlier, isn't it? Because you don't have to worry about him, Bill's long gone," Stan said dismissively, then he sighed at the expectant faces of Danny and Jazz. "If you have to know, Ford and I switched clothes to trick him, I made a deal to let him in my head, then Ford used a memory-wipe-gun-thingy to erase my memories and Bill along with them."

"How do you still have your memories then?" quizzed Jazz.

Stan waved them away. "Beats me, I looked at photos and remembered everything again."

"That makes sense, you forgot stuff because of retrieval failure, then remembered it again because of cues that triggered the memories," said Jazz. "But wouldn't that mean that the same thing would have happened to Bill - that he's not properly gone."

Danny picked up the speculation. "Then, Bill might have just become inactive, but when you were reminded of him he was able to come back?"

Stan was now sheet white, wrinkled fingers gripping the worn edge of the table.

"Kid, tell me the truth, was I in the forest last night?" Stan pleaded.

Danny focused on a creepy bobblehead of Stan to avoid looking directly at him. "Yeah, you were," he said quietly.

Stan sat down, gripping at the chair all the way. "Sixer was right," he uttered.

Jazz and Danny, and later Mabel when she came down and they explained the situation to her, did their best to try and comfort Stan. "If that evil triangle jerkface does come back, we can always beat him again," Mabel punched the air enthusiastically, making Stan chuckle.

"Thanks Mabel," he said. The colour had returned to his face, but he was perched on the edge of his seat, his knuckles white from how hard he was gripping the bottom of the chair.

Dipper and Ford entered the shack, just as tense as Stan. "The statue's destroyed," said Ford, he held chunks of rough rock in his arms.

"What's going on here?" asked Dipper, observing the scene that he'd just walked in on.

Stan looked up at them, on the verge of tears. "Ford was right. I was in the forest last night."

Ford's eyes widened as realisation dawned on him. "Then that means, he did this." He held out the shattered remains of the statue, then began pacing. "This is bad, really bad."

"What's happening? Can someone please explain?" said Dipper, looking around with a confused and concerned expression.

Jazz chose to be the messenger, and breached the topic with hesitance. "Stan is most likely possessed by Bill, or at least he was last night. When you beat Bill last time you didn't really get rid of him properly." She took a deep breath. "He's back."

The effect was immediate, Dipper began to panic, taking shallow breaths. "But we destroyed him, right?" Mabel put a hand on his shoulder. "Relax. We've kicked his butt before, and we can do it again," she said with an enthusiasm that could rival Jack Fenton's when he talked about ghosts.

Dipper tried to regain his composure before talking. "You're right Mabel. So what now?"

The group huddled together in the kitchen to brainstorm, along with Soos, who had finished working for then, a thick notepad on the table in front of Ford, who was fiddling with a ballpoint pen, rolling it between his fingers. "So our main questions are: What is he planning? And, how do we stop him?" he said, looking up at the rest of the team.

"We should probably explain what it was like where the statue was," suggested Dipper, and Ford nodded.

"There were burn marks around the area, and all the rocks were smashed - no human could do this, which means he had help, that makes him even more dangerous."

Danny and Jazz exchanged a look, Jazz being mostly accusatory.

"First things first, no one shake Stan's hand at any time, we don't know if he's still being possessed, but I'm going to guess that Bill got what he wanted judging by the damage to the statue - his previous vessel in our world. As I said before, no human could do that sort of damage, that means that he has an ally in the forest, so no one's allowed to go there alone, especially not at night." He glanced up at Danny, who gave him the best innocent look he could muster.

The rest of the brainstorming session was largely inconclusive, with no one being able to say what Bill was planning in detail, and no one knowing who this 'ally' was. Danny was itching to explain what was actually going on, but knew all too well that he was living under the same roof as a group of ghost hunters and paranormal researchers, so decided it best not to push his luck. Jazz did her best to try and steer the conversation in the direction of the truth, but there was only so much she could do.

"Last thing then, Stan, I want to monitor you at night." Stan scowled. "When I was a budding researcher and made a deal with Bill he took control of my body when I slept, he might be doing the same with you. Everyone stay vigilant. Dismissed."

The Fenton parents returned just in time to see the group splitting up and leaving the kitchen, with Stan sticking around to cook lunch while Ford explained everything to them. Danny, Jazz, Mabel and Dipper retreated to their rooms, with Soos doing another tour of the Mystery Shack for an unsuspecting group of tourists.

After a short conversation, in which Jazz and Danny agreed to help out in any way they could without blowing Danny's secret identity, Jazz soon had her nose stuck into a hardback book larger than her head. Danny texted Sam and Tucker, who gave minimal advise, mostly repeating what Jazz had said, and eventually decided to go and observe the tour.

The group was entranced by each and every item, taking multitudes of photos on cameras with obnoxiously bright flashes. Danny even joined in at one point, presenting a model of one of the winged eyeballs, which Danny referred to as Keese, completely ignoring the peeling name label in favour of referencing the Legend of Zelda. He explained about how the easiest way to defeat them was to poke them in the eye, which the tourists ate up.

After the tour everyone collected in the kitchen again, with Danny arriving just as his father started shouting for the others to come down for lunch, leaving him with ringing in his ears. The meal was unusually tense, with no one being able to look each other in the eye. After a while of uncomfortable silence, Jack decided to start up a conversation. "So this Bill fellow, do you think we can beat him with our ecto weapons?"

Dipper joined in enthusiastically. "I think so, they worked on the Basan didn't they?" Ford perked up at this.

"You wouldn't happen to have any containment devices with you to capture him with, would you?" he asked.

Jack banged a massive hand down on the table excitedly. "Of course we do. After the wretched ghost boy stole our original Fenton thermos, we remade it, got it to work even better than before. I still don't know how that putrid protoplasm got the thermos to work in the first place, the original was a dud, but all's well that ends well, and it will end best when we catch the ghost boy."

"It took two weeks of work to make the working version of the thermos that we use now, but now we can be sure that no spectre, big or small can escape it," Maddie continued.

"Well, I can't say for certain if it'll work against Bill, but it's a start," said Ford, grinning. "It looks like we have a plan."


	8. Chapter 8

The afternoon was spent going through ghost-related inventions, with Maddie and Jack explaining their purpose, and then deciding whether or not they would be useful against Bill. After showing off several oddly shaped and impractically large guns, all of which were deemed to be good weapons, Jack picked up grey box with an antenna sticking out of it. Danny and Jazz groaned upon seeing it, knowing full well what it was and how annoying it was. “This is the Fenton ghost finder. You saw it in action in the haunted store the other day, shame the ghosts were hiding from us, we’ll have to go back there some time to check again.”   
“Dad, put that thing away,” interrupted Jazz, showing slight annoyance. “You can’t use that to fight Bill, and it’s always malfunctioning.”  
Maddie was quick to put down Jazz’s argument. “Jazz, honey, let him explain what it does first.”  
“This baby can tell you when a ghost is nearby and help you track it down, if you switch it on like so.” The ghost finder powered up and began to give an introduction that was slightly muffled by Jack’s massive hands cupped around the speaker.   
‘There is a ghost to your right,’ it chirped, and Jack swiveled around to follow the reading. “I wasn’t expecting a reading here and now!” he said, dumbfounded.   
Danny backed into Stan’s legs as his dad shuffled towards him.   
‘You’re right on top of the ghosts. Thank you for using the Fenton finder.’ Jack was utterly confused, looking around for any unseen ghosts, making eye contact with Danny every so often with even more confusion.   
“See, it’s always malfunctioning,” said Jazz, slipping between Danny and her father. Jack sat back down by the piles of inventions, switching off the Fenton finder and dumping it in the ‘useless’ box.   
“Wait a moment,” Ford said, looking up from the book he had been taking notes in. “Put it in the ‘maybe’ box, it did point towards Stan after all, so it might work after all.” A fire lit up in Jack’s eyes at those words, and he cheerfully moved it to the ‘maybe’ box. 

Next he leaned over and pointed to a hoop with glowing green netting across it. “This is the Fenton ghost catcher. It filters out any ghostly matter that passes through it.”   
Ford nodded. “Maybe. We could use it to get Bill out of whoever he’s possessing - that could be useful.” 

A few more guns later, including a bazooka that opened up a portal to the ghost zone, which was deemed a ‘maybe’, they came to a thermos. Dipper perked up. “Hey, that’s what Danny used to catch the Basan!”   
Jack beamed with pride. “That’s right! This bad boy can capture ghosts, sucks them right up, though powerful ones seem to be able to escape the pull of it, like the ghost boy.” He said the last bit with frustration.   
“Useful,” said Ford, taking notes. 

The rest of the inventions were sorted through, with most of them being deemed useful, and the sun was now beginning to set, casting a burning orange light across the carpet, contrasting sharply with the green of the inventions. The sound of grumbling stomachs interrupted Jack’s explanation of the Fenton fisher, something that was quickly deemed useless by popular vote so they could go and eat supper. The group filtered into the kitchen as Maddie and Jack heaved the boxes of inventions marked as useless over to the RV before joining the rest of the group in the kitchen, where people were helping themselves to sandwiches. Ford was stood by the countertop, deep in thought while munching on his sandwich; the children were all eating with gusto, and Jack beat everyone with the amount of food he consumed. A gentle chit-chat hummed around the table, only to be interrupted by Ford clicking his fingers and clearing his throat. “I have an idea of how to beat Bill, assuming he is possessing Stan.”   
“It’d better not be that memory gun again,” Stan muttered, scowling slightly.  
“No, not the memory gun - the Fenton ghost catcher,” announced Ford. “If ghost weapons do work on Bill, then all we need to do is separate him from Stan and capture him in the thermos.” A murmur of assent went around the room, and it was a plan - after dinner they would try it. “Of course, only myself, Jack and Maddie will be there. I don’t want to put you children in danger.”  
Outrage broke out. “I want to help to beat Bill!” shouted Dipper, slamming his hands down on the table. “Me too!” Mabel chimed in, also bashing the table with her hands. “You can’t leave us out of this!”   
Ford pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Fine, but no one else.”  
“What about Danny?” asked Dipper, gesturing widely with his arm, nearly hitting Mabel in the process. “He was awesome in the woods.”  
Ford didn’t relent. “No, I didn’t see it, so I’m not taking any chances. He’s never faced Bill before, and he doesn’t have the experience of his parents. That’s final.”  
Danny slumped back in his chair. “It’s fine, just tell me how it goes. I’m going to go to my room.” He pushed his chair back and gently nudged Jazz, signalling to her to follow him. 

Danny and Jazz crept upstairs and shut themselves away in their bedroom.”So, I guess you’ll want to be there anyway?” asked Jazz. “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you.”   
“Thanks Jazz,” said Danny, giving her a brief hug. He muttered under his breath “I’m going ghost” and shifted to his ghost form, now hovering a few inches off the ground.   
“Good luck,” said Jazz, grabbing a book to pass the time.   
“See you.” 

Danny faded from the visible spectrum and phased through the floor, drifting into the kitchen, where everybody was congregating, with Mabel dragging Soos into the room. Ford explained the plan: they would separate Bill from Stan using the Fenton ghost catcher, then capture him in the thermos. Guns were passed around, with Mabel ecstatically shooting a practice shot and vaporising a chunk of chair, and the group marched towards a tattered vending machine in the gift shop. Ford tapped in a series of buttons and the machine swung forward, revealing a gloomy staircase to the basement. Danny swooped down the passageway after them as they carefully went down the steps in a line, with Jack, who had to duck to get through the doorway, taking up the rear with the Fenton ghost catcher in his hands.   
The passage opened out into a ginormous room with pipes running along the cold stone walls and blinking lights and computers lining the sides of the room. Chairs were dotted sporadically around the room at desks and monitors and an assortment of odd beings and substances sat atop tables and shelves and locked up in cabinets. A mechanical ring, the skeleton of a portal, stood at the end of the room, stretching the middle of the wall. 

Jack set the ghost catcher down in the middle of the room, and Stan reluctantly sat down in one of the cheap metal chairs next to it. Jack lifted the ghost catcher and Ford uncapped the Fenton thermos, with everyone else drawing their guns, all aimed in Stan’s direction. Danny powered up his fists with ecto energy in anticipation, feeling the heat on his fingertips. 

Stan tensed and gripped the fabric of his trousers as Jack brought the ghost catcher down over his head. The world seemed to freeze as a yellow form was ripped from Stan’s body and thrust down into the ground, from which he bounced up into the air, his bulbous eye spinning around to process what was happening. A flurry of green shots fired at the triangle, tossing him through the air like a ragdoll, one shot blowing a hole right through his top hat. A blue beam engulfed Bill and the shots died down as everyone watched the triangle be slowly dragged towards the container. 

Then he stopped. Bill flew back up, sitting in the light with his thin rubber hose arms crossed cockily. He laughed, a shrill and cruel cackle that made the hairs on the back of Danny’s neck stand on end. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” he teased, basking in the fallen expressions staring up at him. “I guess I should thank you for freeing me from that gross, human body, I couldn’t have done it without you guys.” He shot a laser beam from his bloodshot eye, decimating the thermos in Ford’s hands, which clanged on the concrete floor when Ford dropped the molten metal. 

Danny forgot all about keeping a low profile and rammed his shoulder right into Bill’s face, sending the dream demon flying into the opposite wall. “Leave them alone!” he shouted, sending energy blast after energy blast in Bill’s direction, scorching the wall behind him. The smoking triangle wiped his eye, mostly unfazed by the all out attack, and looked up at Danny, hovering above the stunned humans.   
“Would you look at that? If it isn’t Danny Phantom. I thought you might have got the message that I’m too dangerous for you to deal with, but you’re even more stupid than I thought,” Bill announced, acting as though he were a performer on stage, the limelight of Danny’s venomous green glare illuminating him. “I’d tell them your little secret, but I think it’d be much more fun to let them work it out themselves, don’t you think? I have places to be, realities to destroy.” Bill tipped his now perfectly healed hat. “Farewell for now, halfa.” He spat out the last word with a harsh and dead humour, and vanished into a spiral of symbols, fading from that dimension.

No one spoke for a good minute, all the humans staring at Danny, who was fuming, staring at the spot where Bill used to be.   
“Freeze spook!” shouted Jack, pointing his gun up at Danny. Danny froze and spun around to face him, on the verge of tears, fear evident behind his neon eyes.   
Ford raised a hand to stop him, much to everyone’s surprise. “Let him explain himself, shooting him won’t stop Bill now, especially since he helped us attack Bill.” Danny spluttered and drifted down by a few feet to hover at a more comfortable height.   
“What are you doing here, Phantom?” questioned Maddie, her tone accusatory.   
“Um, I’m on holiday?” he said, rubbing the back of his neck, unsure of himself.   
Maddie scoffed. “And how do you know this Bill? Are you on his side - destroying realities?”  
“No, I’m against him, in case you didn’t guess from me fighting him.” Danny threw his hands around as he spoke, annoyed and fearful. “I want to stop him, so how about a truce?”  
“You didn’t answer my question about how you know him?” Maddie growled.  
“I was in the woods, and I saw him, and he threatened me, okay?” said Danny. Maddie’s expression of scorn made it clear that she didn’t fully believe the ghost boy, but went along with it anyway for the sake of ease.  
“Are you the one who destroyed the statue?” asked Ford, on edge yet more trusting than Danny’s parents.   
Danny paused and fiddled with the hair on the back of his neck. “Yes, I thought it would stop whatever Bill was planning…” He trailed off - he’d hadn’t stopped Bill after all.  
Ford hummed to himself and pulled out his notebook from one of his coat’s many pockets. “Would you be interested in helping us fight Bill?” proposed Ford. “You obviously have brilliant offensive potential.” Ford glanced at the scorch marked wall. “We just need to work out a plan to use it well against Bill.”   
Danny grinned excitedly. “Of course!” he exclaimed, he opened his mouth to continue speaking, but was cut off by Maddie.  
“You want to trust this ectoplasmic malefactor? Have you forgotten that ghosts are malevolent by nature?” she said, eyeing Phantom suspiciously.   
Ford tapped his pen on the paper of his book. “I do intend on trusting him - his mannerisms are those of a socially awkward teenage boy, far more human than any other ghosts I’ve come across in my field of work, and we could use any ally we can get in the fight against Bill.” Just as Maddie was about to interrupt, he continued speaking. “If you care that much, we can put it up to a vote. All who want to work with Phantom as an ally against Bill, raise your hand.” Mabel, Dipper and Ford himself raised their hands, with Mabel bouncing around with excitement at meeting the ghost boy. “And all those against working with Phantom, raise your hand.” Maddie and Jack rose their hands, scowling at their loss.   
“Stan, what about you?” asked Ford, noticing Stan still sitting in the chair, looking a little sick.   
“I don’t care either way, just leave me out of this, I feel like I’m about to barf,” said Stan, it seemed that having a dream demon ripped from your head was not the most pleasant experience.  
“Well, that settles it, we’re working with Phantom - that means no shooting him at least until after this mess is over,” Ford said, leaving no room for argument. “Phantom, we’ll need a full list of your abilities, but first: Bill called you ‘halfa’. What is a halfa?”  
Danny froze like a deer in the headlights. “It’s a nickname, yeah, that’s all. It doesn’t mean anything,” Danny forced out.  
“Don’t lie to us spook,” said Jack. Ford was furiously taking notes, which Danny could just about make out from where he was hovering. The notes read ‘halfa - half ghost?’ and described all Ford’s observations, including Danny apparently being a horrible liar, which he had to disagree with.   
Ford slammed the book shut, making Danny jump and shoot up about a foot in the air. “Don’t you know it’s rude to read someone else’s work like that?” he asked, losing all anger when he saw Danny’s reaction. 

“I want to regroup and begin work on defenses against Bill, but first, Phantom, I need you to explain all your abilities,” Ford commanded, pulling up a chair and seating himself, gesturing for Danny to take the chair next to him. Danny drifted down, landing next to the chair about a metre away from Ford and sitting on it, shuffling it back a bit.   
“Um, well I can fly, go intangible, invisible, shoot ecto blasts, freeze stuff and...that’s it,” Danny said, his back oddly stiff in the cold, hard chair. Ford nodded for each of them, noting each power as a bullet point on a new page in his notebook.   
“I’ve seen your ecto blasts, so that’s taken care of. Would you mind giving me a demonstration of your cryokinesis?” Upon noticing Danny’s blank expression he elaborated. “Your ability to freeze stuff.”  
“Oh,” said Danny, rubbing the back of his neck. He held out a hand and formed an ice crystal above his palm, then placed it in Ford’s open hand.   
Holding the crystal up to the light, Ford inspected it, with mutterings of “impressive” and “nearly structurally flawless”. He placed the crystal in a dish, noting how his body heat had barely caused it to melt. “What are the other applications of this power?” Ford queried, curiosity sparkling behind his glasses. To answer his question Danny simply formed a snowball in his hands, which he bounced up in his hand gently before nailing Stan in the head with it (who was less than impressed with the sudden snow going down his shirt).  
“Hmm, you have quite good control over that power. Can you use it on a larger scale?” asked Ford, adding to his notes when Danny nodded.  
“Not to brag, but I can freeze entire city blocks if I put enough power into it,” Danny said, attempting, and failing, to hide his pride with his achievements with his powers. Stan was taken aback for a moment by this statement, and continued noting down information. 

Once finished, he stood up and tucked his book back into his oversized pocket, clearing his throat. “I want everyone to go to bed now, we need to start getting ready to fight Bill from early in the morning.”   
A battle cry from Mabel, Dipper and Soos later, and the group, minus Ford, was heading upstairs. Ford sat down at a computer, booting it up, the blue monitor reflecting off his glasses as he pushed them up his nose.   
“Shouldn’t you go to bed too?” Danny asked, startling Ford.  
Ford shifted around on his chair to partially face Danny, who was hovering a couple of feet away, a few inches off the ground. “I need to backup my notes digitally, it’s too easy for someone to destroy my journal. I’ll sleep when I’m done.” He glanced at his notes and spoke again. “Shouldn’t you be going to sleep?”  
Danny’s heart skipped a beat, fear glinting in the green vortex of his eyes. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” he joked, trying to play it cool. Stan gave him an amused glance, writing more notes in his journal.   
“You might as well go Danny, you must be exhausted after last night,” said Ford, typing lines of text on the screen. Danny almost fell out of the air with shock, this confirmed it - Ford knew. He backed up, breathing sharply. Ford paused his typing and got up to approach Danny, stopping when Danny flew away from him, maintaining eye contact. “I won’t hurt you Danny,” he said in an attempt to comfort the panicking teen. 

“Your parents don’t know, do they?” asked Ford.   
Danny flinched and shook his head, faintly glowing tears trickling down his lightly freckled cheeks. “I, I can’t - they’re ghost hunters.”   
Ford sighed and made another attempt to approach the teen, walking slowly as not to startle him. Danny melted into a hug, sobbing on the shoulder of someone who was near stranger to him. “Your parents will love you whether you’re ghost, human or something in between. I’ve been talking to them for all of two days, and I can tell they care dearly about you and your sister - you two and ghosts are the main things they talk about,” Ford said, putting Danny down on a chair and taking one nearby to face him.   
“Thank you,” Danny muttered, wiping tears from his face. “How are you treating me like I’m normal? I’m half ghost, that shouldn’t be possible.”  
“Danny, I’ve faced a dream demon, fought monsters and been in alternate dimensions, not much can surprise me anymore,” Ford gave a genuine smile, putting aside his scientific curiosity with how someone could be half ghost in favor of comforting the teen, and Danny relaxed his posture, although he was still perched on the edge of his seat.  
“Please can you not tell anyone about this? I’ll tell my parents when I’m ready, I just want to do it right, y’know,” pleaded Danny.  
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. Your secret is safe with me,” Ford reassured him. He glanced at the clock on the computer screen, ‘10:38’. “You should probably go to bed now.” Ford patted Danny on the shoulder as he stood up.   
Danny nodded and flew up by several feet. “Night!”   
“Good night,” said Ford, now seated back at the computer, as Danny soared invisibly through the ceiling. Ford’s fingers tapped against the keys at a rapid pace as he worked, pausing only to rub his eyes drowsily. His thoughts kept going back to how Danny could have become half ghost, and he shuddered at some of the more gruesome ideas, despite purposefully leaving out any information that could indicate that Phantom was only half ghost in transcribing his notes. About half an hour later he plodded up the stairs, walking on autopilot to his bed in the room he shared with Stan, quickly falling asleep despite his twin’s loud snores.


	9. Chapter 9

“Are you sure you want to tell them now?” asked Jazz as Danny shakily stood up from his bed.

“I've got to do it at some point, and you'll be there to back me up,” Danny said, half convincing himself as he reached out and turned the door handle after taking a deep breath. “You'll be going to college soon, and then what? I need to tell Mom and Dad before then, and now’s as good a time as any.”

They trudged down the stairs, the time dilating as it felt like Danny was walking towards the gallows. Jazz's hand on his should kept him grounded as he entered the kitchen. His parents were sat at the table, his dad wolfing down toast. Ford stood by the counter, and gave a nod of acknowledgement when Danny walked through the door.

Danny began to eat his cereal, despite feeling queasy, regretting choosing a sugary cereal which seemed sickly sweet in his nervous state. “Hey, uh, Mom, Dad, I need to tell you something, in private,” he said reluctantly. “After breakfast of course.”

His parents exchanged confused and concerned glances. “Of course, sweety.” Maddie kept a calm and caring demeanor despite the worried glint in her eyes.

 

The rest of the meal was tense, with no one saying a word, even when Dipper and Mabel came down. Mabel had attempted to make conversation, but the reluctance of anyone else to speak put an end to that attempt within minutes. Danny rinsed out his bowl last and nodded to Jazz, who insisted that their parents leave all their weapons in the kitchen, even the hidden ones.

The quartet went into the living room, the parents sitting down by demand of their children. “I, um, remember the accident with the portal...” Danny stammered, eyes cast down to the floor. “I, I didn't really get out of it completely fine, I mean the same, I mean, ugh!”

Tears streamed down his face and Maddie and Jack got up to embrace him in a hug, but stopped, flawed when he shrunk back from their efforts. “Whatever it is, we still love you Danny, nothing could ever change that,” Maddie reassured.

Danny shuffled his feet, and mumbled, “I'm half ghost.”

“You're what? Half toast?” said Jack, trying to process what Danny had just said.

“I’m half ghost,” Danny repeated, louder this time, his voice shaking with the rest of him as he stood there. “A halfa.”

Jazz stepped forward to embrace her sobbing brother, and patted him on the back. “Halfa…” muttered Maddie under her breath before getting up alongside Jack and going to join in the hug.

“Danny, I'm so sorry,” said Maddie, her voice cracking with emotion.

“What for?” asked Danny, his icy blue eyes brimming with emotion as he met her gaze.

“Everything. We should have noticed it, your grades slipping, the bags under your eyes, the injuries. And all of this because of us. We're terrible parents,” she cried.

“But I lied to you, over and over, you couldn't have known, if anyone should be apologising, it's me. It wasn't your fault; I chose to go into that portal, it's my fault.” Danny pleaded.

“It's not a matter of fault or anything like that. We're your parents, we should have been helping you through it. No one should have to go through whatever you're going through alone,” said Jack, brushing Danny’s hair out of his eyes.

“Thanks, but I wasn't alone. Sam and Tucker helped me out from the start, and Jazz worked it out on her own.” Danny stepped back from the hug, only to end up in one of his dad's bear hugs.

“I should have known that your friends would help you out. You have some great friends Danno,” Jack said.

“Dad...need to breathe…” gasped Danny before phasing out of his father's arms. Jack shivered and retracted his arms, muttering about never getting used to intangibility.

“You really are half ghost,” said Maddie, still in disbelief.

“Well, yeah, isn't that what I just told you,” stated Danny, sticking his hands in his pockets.

“There's a big difference between saying and seeing,” Maddie explained. “I'm sorry, it's just a lot to take in, we still love you just the same. Why didn't you tell us sooner?”

Danny avoided eye contact. “Well, you're ghost hunters, and I…”

Each of Danny's parents placed a comforting hand on his shoulders. “We understand,” said Jack, uncharacteristically calm, before changing the subject, “so, you have some pretty cool powers?”

Jazz immediately recognised what he was doing, he was trying to make Danny feel more comfortable about talking about his ghost powers by expressing interest, behind his goofy facade he was actually smart, that and he thought ghost powers were awesome.

Danny’s face split into a grin. “Yeah, I've got standard ghost powers: intangibility, invisibility and flight, and I can shoot ectoblast and cr-”

“Cryokinesis,” suggested Jazz.

“That,” said Danny, “and my ghostly wail, which is this super powerful attack where I scream with ecto energy and it..” He trailed off, suddenly wondering if explaining the sheer destructive power of his ghostly wail would make his parents afraid of him.

“You don’t have to tell us everything just yet, just whenever you feel comfortable, okay?” Maddie comforted him.

“Remember that we'll love you no matter what, whether you're ghost, human or something in between,” Jack chimed in.

“Thank you.” Danny embraced both his parents in a hug.

“See Danny,” said Jazz as Danny stood back from the hug. “Ford was right.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Danny rolled his eyes.

“Ford?” questioned Maddie.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, he worked it out last night, and told me that you'd love me no matter what. I think Bill's halfa comment tipped him off, and I guess it was kinda suspicious for Danny Phantom to be here.”

“I'll make sure to thank him,” said Maddie. “Do the other Pines know?”

Danny shook his head. “No, just Ford.”

“Are you going to tell the other Pines?” Maddie asked.

Danny paused in thought. “Um, I don't know. Should I?”

“It's probably for the better with us fighting Bill together,” Jazz said.

“Okay then, Mom? Dad?” Danny looked up to them.

“Go for it Danny-boy,” Jack cheered.

“We'll support you if you need it,” said Maddie.

 

The Fenton family made their way to the kitchen, where Dipper and Mabel were talking about the previous night’s events while Stan munched on corn flakes with raisins in. Ford still stood by the counter, visibly relieved to see the conversation had been positive.

Jazz cleared her throat loudly, drawing all the attention in the room to her direction. “Danny has something he'd like to tell you guys.”

Danny shrunk under their inquisitive looks. “I’m Danny Phantom,” he forced out. “I'm half ghost and I swear I'm good and-” Danny cut himself off.

The immediate reactions varied, with Dipper yelling “I knew it!”, Mabel letting out an excited squeal, and Stan being somewhat unaffected, just giving a grunt of acknowledgement through his mouthful of cereal. Danny was met with a barrage of questions, most of which he answered, with his parents and Jazz supplying answers whenever Danny got overwhelmed. Danny declined to answer how he got his powers at first, but the groans of annoyance convinced him to give a very vague description of the portal accident, carefully skipping over the part where he felt like he was being burnt alive as countless volts coursed through his body as not to distress anyone, namely his parents. The end result was overall good, with Danny clearing up as many misconceptions as he could.

“So does this mean that you'll be using your ghost powers to fight Bill?” asked Dipper.

Danny nodded. “I'll do my best.”

Ford cleared his throat and pulled out a piece of paper, dumping it on the table. “Now that’s all cleared up, I have a list of ingredients here for a ward to keep Bill out. I need you to split up and get them.”

Everyone crowded around the paper as Ford read it out loud. “Unicorn hair,-” Mabel’s face split into a malicious grin. “-Glub slime, mandrake leaves, gold salt, goblin steel, blood blossoms-”

“What!?” yelled Danny. “Did you just say blood blossoms?”

Ford looked up at Danny’s pale face and spoke, “yes, that’s right. What’s the matter?”

Jazz butted in, “oh yeah, blood blossoms hurt Danny, so we can’t use those.”

Ford looked over the top of his glasses as he crossed it out on the list. “Not that then. I assumed you’d be fine because you’re only half ghost, apparently I was wrong.”

Danny shuffled his feet awkwardly, he didn’t exactly want his parents to be reminded of how inhuman he was. He glanced at his parents, who remained supportive, his dad placing a giant hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay Danny, it doesn’t matter how much of a ghost or human you are, we still love you,” Jack reassured.

“Thanks Dad,” Danny sighed in relief.

Ford tapped his pen on the paper. “Moving on, we’ll have to make slight adjustments to the ward, but I think that betony should be good substitute for blood blossoms. We’ll also need pearls and wolpertinger antlers, and that’s it.”

“Dibs on getting the unicorn hair!” shouted Mabel, slamming her palms on the table. “They won’t know what hit them.”

Stan reluctantly pulled a handful of glistening pearls from his pocket. “I was saving these, but since you need them…”

“Thank you,” Ford said, ticking it on the list. “I already have gold salt and betony, so we don't have to get those. Jasmine, I want you to accompany Mabel - make sure she doesn't do too much harm to the unicorns. Danny and Dipper, you're going to be getting the goblin steel. Invisibility and intangibility will make your quest easy. Maddie and Jack, I'd like you to collect the glub slime. Stan, I'd like you to collect the wolpertinger antlers. And I'll procure the mandrake leaves. Is everyone okay with this arrangement?”

Nods came from all around.

“Right then. Dipper, I trust you know where to get goblin steel?” Ford enquired.

Dipper nodded enthusiastically. “Yep!”

“Maddie, Jack, stay behind, I'll give you more information on glubs. The rest of you, go get the ingredients.”

 

The group dispersed, heading in different directions into the woods, Mabel practically dragging Jazz through the underbrush.

Danny swatted at a stray branch as he followed Dipper through the dense foliage. “So where are we getting goblin steel?” he asked.

Dipper gave him an incredulous look. “From goblins of course.”

They clambered over a rocky wall, somewhat reminding Danny of the trash heap climb from when they met up with Wendy. Slightly out of breath, Dipper elaborated, “goblins live underground, they produce strong metals, but they're incredibly protective of them - that's where you come in.”

“Got it,” said Danny, hopping down the slope. “Invisibility, intangibility, in and out.”

“How do your powers work?” queried Dipper.

Danny paused. “Not sure, you'd have to ask my parents. Jazz thinks that ectoplasm bonded to my DNA, and that's how I'm half ghost. As for how I use my powers, I guess I just do, it's kind of like a muscle. It used to be really difficult, and happen at random times, but now I'd say I've got it under control.”

“That's so cool!” exclaimed Dipper, “I wish I had superpowers.”

“Don’t say the w word!” gasped Danny, “there's a ghost called Desiree who grants every one she hears but with horrible consequences.”

“What sort of consequences?” Dipper said cautiously.

“Like making you turn into an evil ghost or a monster. Trust me, she's bad news,” answered Danny, stopping right before a sheer drop and holding our his arm to halt Dipper.

“Woah, how are we gonna get down there?” asked Dipper, before face palming. “Oh yeah.”

Danny grinned as he shifted into his ghost form. “Just a little heads up, I'm kinda cold in my ghost form,” he said before grabbing Dipper's arm and levitating them a few inches above the ground. Dipper yelped as the plunged down off the cliff face and glided up just in time to avoid the ground and keep flying. They flew down into a tunnel, crystals of increasing size sporadically lodged in the rough walls. Danny landed them on a large crystalline platform, Dipper panting, his heart hammering in his chest. “So, what now?” Danny asked, perching on the side of the hexagonal form to peer down into the tunnels below. Short humanoid figures with long hooked noses traversed below them.

“We’ll need to find one of their metal works, just look around and grab the steel when you find it,” explained Dipper, staying low on the crystal, clearly unhappy with the precarious place he was standing on.

“Got it.” Danny nodded, taking Dipper’s arm and turning them both invisible and intangible. It felt like being submerged in icy water, making Dipper’s hairs stand on end. Danny weaved through the crowds of goblins. Now able to see the goblins up close, Danny observed their wrinkly, grey skin, long, spindly fingers and large, satellite-like ears. The goblins spoke to each other in an arcane language with harsh, raspy tones. Dipper’s breath hitched in his throat every time any of the goblins turned in their direction, almost as though they were able to sense their presence, before muttering to themselves and continuing on their way.

The twisted routes seemed to have no order or purpose, with many dead ends and loops. Eventually Danny reached a pair of heavy wood doors, pushed open by the goblin they were following, the goblin hardly straining despite its skinny appearance. Danny phased through the door as it slammed shut behind the goblin. Brick walls laden with dozens of pegs and shelves surrounded a particularly wrinkled goblin, its leathery skin sagging from its gaunt face, who bashed at an anvil with a worn hammer while the goblin Danny and Dipper had been following stoked the fire embedded in the wall furthest from the door with the bucket of coal it was carrying, beady eyes burning bright in the light of the flames. Dipper pulled Danny’s hand in the direction of the piles of metal on the shelves nearby, and Danny glided towards them. Various metals, from gold to iron to bismuth were stacked in gravity defying arrangements. “I don’t think any of these are goblin steel,” Dipper muttered, barely audible. “It’s usually processed, in a sword or such.”

Danny tugged him over to the broadsword that was displayed over the fireplace, clearly the blacksmith’s finest work, with intricate patterns with runes engraved in its hilt. The fire sputtered as Dany approached, deterred by his freezing aura. The goblin stoking the fire began shouting, its words like boulders being ground against each other, demanding angrily and swiping at the air in front of him before stepping back and cringing when he passed through the invisible duo. It began screeching and cursing at the top of its lungs, drawing the attention of the blacksmith, who grabbed an axe that had been leaning against the wall next to him and lumbered forward. Danny pulled the sword off the wall, straining to lift it and trying to turn it invisible.

“I can’t turn it invisible!” Danny hissed in panic. “I think it’s immune to my powers!”

They flew up suddenly to try and dodge the axe that came crashing in their direction, slashing Danny’s leg and lodging in the wall.

“Run! I mean, fly away!” screamed Dipper, the blacksmith now trying to tug the axe out of the bricks.

They burst through the doors, crashing into the corridor outside, the fuming goblins sprinting after them, screeching at the top of their lungs. All beady eyes turned to face them and the floating sword. The crowds parted as the sword swooped through the tunnels, going this way and that, and speeding up the entrance, the blade chipping at the crystals as Danny’s forward momentum made dodging difficult. They shot out of the tunnels and drifted down to the ground outside.

Danny crouched with the sword held against the ground, his chest rising and falling drastically as he panted. “We made it!” He grinned.

Dipper struggled to regain his composure, still shaking with adrenaline from the wild flight through the caverns. “Yeah.”

Danny slowly got to his feet and held out his hand for Dipper. “Let’s go, those goblins will probably be coming after us - they were majorly ticked off.” Dipper nodded and took his hand, being pulled up.

As they started to walk away Danny stumbled and reached out to grab a nearby tree to support himself. A gash ran along his right leg, the skin and muscle knitting itself back together. “Crud,” Danny exclaimed, choosing instead to hover until his leg could support his weight.

“Are you okay?” asked Dipper, concerned, stopping abruptly when Danny fell.

“Yeah, I heal quickly,” Danny said dismissively, gliding forward. “I’ll be fine in an hour, don’t worry.”

Dipper looked unconvinced, but didn’t question him, following Danny down the forest path. They kept travelling slowly for a few minutes, before a cougar with bright green wings sprinted terrified past them. Loud, grating screeches crashed through the forest behind them. Danny and Dipper exchanged glances before Danny grabbed Dipper’s arm and flew them rapidly away from the furious shouts, the screams becoming quieter and quieter before becoming silent.

The duo kept flying until they whooshed out of the dense forest. The sun hitting their eyes made them squint. Danny lowered Dipper in front of the Mystery Shack’s door and they pushed it open. The vending machine/door was wide open, light emanating from the bottom of the staircase. Danny and Dipper descended the stairs, with Dipper announcing their presence. “Grunkle Ford? We’re back!”

Ford stood to the side of the basement, typing on a computer, large, green leaves, glittering gold salt, pearls and a plant with small purple flowers on the table next to him. Ford turned around to face them, his eyes wide when he saw the large sword hanging from Danny’s hand. “How did you manage to get that?” he exclaimed, standing up and moving forward to take it from Danny.

Danny handed the sword to him by the handle. “We grabbed it and flew really fast,” he shrugged.

Ford placed the sword horizontally on a nearby table near the middle of the room. Ford glanced at Danny’s leg and opened his mouth to speak before being interrupted by a pair jumpsuited figures and a putrid smell crashing into the basement, covered in goop.

Jack held a large jar filled with the same earwax coloured goo that covered his jumpsuit. “Where did you want this?”

“Put it down over here,” said Ford, moving over to a table at the opposite side of the room to his workstation, grimacing at the smell. “And please clean off, there’s a hose outside.”

Jack dumped the container down on the table, splattering slime all over it, then wiped the goggles of his jumpsuit, jumping when he spotted Danny. “Oh, hi Danny, Dipper. Didn’t see you there, I’ll be back in a mo, just got to clean off.”

“And we’re treating that cut of yours when we get back Danny,” Maddie stated before following Jack up the stairs.

Ford went back over to his computer, and sat down, his chair facing the two teens. “I was going to offer to treat that myself, but your parents have it covered. I would be interested to hear how you got that wound,” he enquired.

“A goblin came at us with an axe, it turns out that goblin steel isn’t affected by ghost powers,” he explained, gesturing to the great sword as he sat on a chair next to it.

Ford hastily typed a note on a new line from the expanse of text before it. “Fascinating, the magical properties of goblin steel must negate ghostly abilities.”

Thundering footsteps came back down the steps, and Maddie and Jack reentered the basement, now clean with just the odd bit of slime clinging to the folds of their clothing. Maddie dug out a first aid kit from one of the shelves and kneeled down next to Danny.

“Should I change to human?” Danny asked slightly nervously.

“No, it’s alright Danny.” She picked out cleaning alcohol, and soaked a disposable cloth in it. “Please can you lift your leg for me Danny, I need to clean it.”

Danny held his leg up, allowing Maddie to dab at the now shallow cut. Danny hissed in pain as the radioactive green blood stained the cloth. “Why couldn’t I just go intangible?” he questioned.

Maddie shook her head. “Intangibility can’t kill germs.” She pulled out a roll of gauze, and was just about to bandage Danny’s leg when he spoke up.

“It’s fine, you don’t have to bandage it - I heal really fast.”

Maddie cocked her eyebrow. “How quickly?” she enquired, knowing full well that Danny had a habit of downplaying his issues.

“It’ll be completely healed in ten minutes by the looks of it,” Danny explained. “I’m fine, really Mom.”

Dipper, who had been talking animatedly to Ford, looked over at Danny and had to do a double take upon seeing the cut. “Woah, that was fast! I swear that was twice that size just earlier.”

“Danny, just how much have you been hurt without us realising?” Maddie asked, parental worry seeping into her voice and tears welling up in her eyes.

“I don’t normally get too hurt, just little scrapes and bruises.” Danny shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “It’s not your fault, I lied, over and over. I’m sorry.”

Maddie wrapped her arms around Danny’s torso, barely noticing that he was like a freezer, tears trickling down her cheeks. “You don’t have to lie to us Danny, okay?”

Danny hugged her back, and Jack soon joined in, holding them both in his arms. “You can talk to us about anything Danny, remember that.”

“Thanks, that means a lot,” Danny said, still stuck in his parents’ embrace.

After a while the trio separated from the hug and Maddie insisted on checking Danny’s leg again, still not quite sure whether Danny was just downplaying his injury.

The cut was but a mere green sliver that was sealing up more with each moment. “Okay, you really didn’t need bandages, but if something like this happens again I want you to come and get help as soon as possible,” she lectured. “And I want you to be more careful. You’ll have to have training sessions with me whether you like it or not. I doubt we can stop you ghost hunting, but I do want to make sure you’re not in danger.”

“I get it Mom,”consented Danny, testing his leg to see if it could hold his weight now.

Ford cleared his throat. “On that topic, I’d like everyone to train to fight Bill, Danny especially. We need everyone to be proficient with ghost weapons so we have a fighting chance against Bill.”

The next hour was spent teaching Dipper how to use ectoguns properly, as Maddie had pointed out flaws in his aim and form, while waiting for the others to arrive from their quests. At around the half hour point Mabel had come in grinning and dumped a load of iridescent hair on the table, brutally cut from the mane of the creatures, and she and Jazz, who had sprinted down the stairs to try and catch up with her soon after she arrived, joined in with the training. Danny began sparring with her in his human form (to make it more fair), all the while Maddie glanced over and corrected their techniques. By the end of the training session everyone had made significant progress - both Mabel and Dipper had perfected their aim with the guns, and Danny’s fighting ability had improved to the point where Jazz had flat out refused to fight him since apparently going intangible was cheating.

 

It was decided that Danny and his mom should go and spar outside, since Jack had insisted on training Jazz, and Danny didn’t want to risk getting hit by a stray blast, remembering all the times Jazz had trapped him in the thermos.

“How long have you been fighting ghosts?” Maddie asked as they stood on the foam mats on the lawn.

Danny looked unfocused at nothing in particular for a moment before saying, “almost a year now, I guess.The ghosts didn’t really start showing up until about a month after I got my powers.”

“You’ve learned fast. Did anyone teach you?” she enquired, stretching her arms and legs in preparation for training.

Danny also stretched a bit before hopping up and down on his toes. “Not really, I kinda had to learn on the job, but the martial arts you taught me as a kid came in handy.” He initiated the spar with a light punch, only to have his wrist caught.

“Your punches are a bit too wide and loose, but other than that I’m really impressed,” Maddie said, “watch my technique and try to copy it.” Danny repeated the swift punch to the air that she demonstrated.

“Well done, that was almost perfect,” she encouraged. “Now try fighting me with ghost powers.”


	10. A/N

This story will be abandoned as I want to rewrite it with better planning and pacing. I had no idea what I was doing when I started writing this, and feel that I could do much better now. I'll be posting the rewrite soon as a new story.

Thank you to everyone who's read, favourited, followed and reviewed this story.


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